Red rocks, rich in iron. At https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/01/they-smashed-rock-found-intact-fossils/ … this is a story from New South Wales in Australia. Hidden within layers of deep red iron rich rock was an extraordinary number of fossils. Not only that but the fossils included soft tissues, internal organs, and cellular detail. Yet, the rocks had never before been investigated as it was thought the amount of iron in them would have thwarted fossil preservation. They were wrong. Fossils seem to exist anywhere life forms lived. However, if fossils are preserved by catastrophic destruction and immediate burial such a dictum does not work. The excess of iron would have been part of the catastrophic event. Bones and shells are preserved – as well as spiders with their hairs, insect eyes, and internal organs – even pigment cells.
At https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/01/ocean-thought-dead-insane-fossil-site/ … this one comes from a recently discovered fossil site in South China that captures an entire marine ecosystem – frozen in rock with unprecedented detail. Known as the Huayan biota – bones and shells, and once again – soft tissue and entire species never seen before. It is dated 512 million years ago on the geological column. It is around the time of the Cambrian Explosion – the first sign of life preserved in rock. Some 8600 fossils and 153 species, many of them new to science. Trilobites, sponges, comb jellies, anemones, and radiodonts – as well as pelagic tunicate, a free swimming filter feeder still common in modern oceans. Biological features such as gut divoticula, optic neurosils, and cellular level structures are also preserved. Many of the fossils have the appearance of being undisturbed – their bodies intact but overcome by something not too obvious. They were rapidly buried, they say, in order to preserve their living soft parts. Many of the fossils have a parallel in the Burgess Shale of Canada.
At https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/01/dinosaur-egg-nest-found-portugal-beach/ … and https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/01/scientists-found-fossil-with-human-eyes/ …has more unusual fossil finds.