The upper part was 1.24 metres thick and contained a large number of incomplete fish and plant fossils.[10] Above the upper fish bed there was a mudstone succession that was weathered to a stiff clay. The Wadeichthys species was the second smallest of the five extinct fish found at Koonwarra. [11] These five families of extinct fish known from the Koonwarra fossil bed include Ceratodontidae (Dipnoi), Leptolepididae (Clupeiformes), Archaeomaenidae (Pholidophoriformes), Coccolepididae (Palaeonisciformes) and Koonnwarriidae.[12] Palaeontologist Stephen Poropat identifies this site as "one of the great fossil localities of the Mesozoic era", earning it the name of Koonwarra Lagerstätte. [13] The term Lagerstätte translates to 'storeroom place' and was coined by German palaeontologist Dolf Seilacher in 1970 to describe a site of where fossil are both abundant and exceptionally preserved. [14] [1] Peter A. Jell and Peter M. Duncan, "Invertebrates, mainly insects, from the freshwater, lower Cretaceous, Koonwarra fossil bed (Korumburra Group), south Gippsland, Victoria," Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 3, no. 1 (1986): 111. [2] Poropat, "The Koonwarra Fossil Bed," 74. [3] Poropat, "The Koonwarra Fossil Bed," 77. [4] Poropat, "The Koonwarra Fossil Bed," 77. [5] Jell and Peter M. Duncan, "Invertebrates", 111. [6] Poropat, "The Koonwarra Fossil Bed," 70. [7] Lynne Bean, "Reappraisal of Mesozoic fishes and associated invertebrates and flora from Talbragar and Koonwarra, eastern Australia," Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 129 (2007): 11, ResearchGate. [8] Bean, "Reappraisal of Mesozoic fishes" 11. [9] Michael Waldman, "Fish from the freshwater Lower Cretaceous, near Koonwarra, Victoria, Australia : with comments on the palaeo-environment," Special Papers in Palaeontology (The Palaeontological Association London, 1971), 95. [10] Waldman, "Fish," 95. [11] Poropat, "The Koonwarra Fossil Bed," 75. [12] Waldman, "Fish," 93. [13] Jonathon Kendall, "Fight to protect Koonwarra fossil bed from works on South Gippsland Highway," ABC News, September 25, 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-25/fight to-protect-koonwarra-fossil-bed-from-roadworks/12701594. [14] Poropat, "The Koonwarra Fossil Bed," 70. [1] Dale Russell, "The Mass Extinctions of the Late Mesozoic," Scientific American 246, no. 1 (1982): 58, JSTOR. [2] Russell, "The Mass Extinctions of the Late Mesozoic," 58. [3] Stephen Poropat, "The Koonwarra Fossil Bed," Australian Age of Dinosaurs, February 18, 2018, 70. [4] Jonathon Kendall, "Fight to protect Koonwarra fossil bed from works on South Gippsland Highway," ABC News, September 25, 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-25/fight to-protect-koonwarra-fossil-bed-from-roadworks/12701594. [5] Poropat, "The Koonwarra Fossil Bed," 75. [6] Michael Waldman, "Fish from the freshwater Lower Cretaceous, near Koonwarra, Victoria, Australia : with comments on