The potential of goethite for the preservation of extremely fine details in a wide range of fossils has first been recognised at McGraths Flat, a newly discovered Miocene Konservat-Lagerstätte near Gulgong, New South Wales. McGraths Flat hosts a rich diversity of microfossils, plants, insects and spiders along with fishes and other vertebrate remains. The site also provides evidence for species interactions such as predation, parasitism and pollination. The variety of fossils and their high fidelity preservation allows for unprecedented insights into the mesic ecosystems that dominated Australia until the Middle Miocene.

Dr Michael Frese currently holds the position of Associate Professor at the University of Canberra and is affiliated with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian Museum in Sydney. He studied biology at the Universities of Osnabrück and Freiburg (both Germany) and, in 1996, received a PhD in virology from the University of Freiburg. Dr Frese continued researching viruses and their interactions with the innate immune defence at the University of Freiburg, the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (California) and the University of Heidelberg (Germany). He worked with a range of RNA viruses, including influenza viruses, hepatitis C viruses and highly pathogenic haemorrhagic fever viruses. After migrating to Australia in 2006, he studied the replication of rabbit caliciviruses and the antiviral resistance in sheep. Dr Frese also engages in palaeontological research. He has discovered and studied fossil Lagerstätten, formally described new plant and animal species, and reconstructed palaeoenvironments. He is particularly interested in exploring the use of scanning electron microscopy, fluorescence microscopy and other imaging techniques to investigate the soft tissues of exceptionally preserved fossils.