The fossiliferous limestone system is located near the Gregory River in the north-west of Queensland, an environment that was once a very wet rainforest that became more arid as the Gondwanan land masses separated and the Australian continent moved north.

[3] Many of the fossil sites were crevices and limestone caves created by the action of large amounts of water on the karst formation, creating pitfall traps and feeding spots for predators which periodically and perhaps suddenly became covered and preserved; these conditions are responsible for the large assemblages of fossilised bats whose guano helped to conserve the remains of themselves and others.

[5] Fossils at Riversleigh are found in limestone by lime-rich freshwater pools, and in caves, when the ecosystem was evolving from rich rainforest to semiarid grassland community.

[9] A well-preserved skull of the ancient Nimbacinus dicksoni, an extinct relative of the thylacine, has been used to determine the hunting behavior of the species.

[10] Other fossils have provided evidence of how the koala has evolved in response to Australia's change from predominant rainforest vegetation to drier eucalypt forests.

[4] Karen Black, a palaeontologist from UNSW, discovered a new species of extinct koala, at Riversleigh, which was then named after Dick Smith.