Dinosaur Overload

We have done the Dinosaur Trail. Winton was an eye-opener to the process of excavation, preservation and reconstruction of fossils. Richmond had the most amazing collection of marine fossils, entire skeletons of ancient monsters and more being dug up each day. Hughenden has a different emphasis, with more information and fewer actual fossils, To add to the overload, Cory borrowed books about dinosaurs from every library we visited, returned them to the next town and got more - all of which he shared with me!

Winton has enough bones at the Age of Dinosaurs Museum. of Banjo and Matilda to recreate the entire animals and bones of others which will probably eventually be identified, A film gives details of each find and fascinating background information. A hundred metres away is the laboratory where staff and willing volunteers work on items. When fossils are uncovered, they are carefully excavated with a trench around them to ensure that all the pieces are included. They are wrapped and then enclosed in plaster with details and dates. Later they are opened and the slow process of removing the bones from surrounding residue begins. Paleontologists identify each part, some merely a chip off a tooth, recreate where possible and catalogue all finds.

When I went to the Kronosaurus Korner museum in Richmond, I asked which displays were real bones and which were replicas. I was surprised to find that everything was real. If a part was missing, there was no attempt to recreate it. The fossil was laid out just as it was found. This was all part of an inland sea and apparently sediment covered the creatures rapidly, resulting in dozens (maybe hundreds) of almost intact specimens. Most of them have been found in the very recent past so the whole story of recovery is recorded. Most of the finds began with an accidental discovery of a bone on one of the local properties. When it was identified a team moved in to excavate the area.

One of the largely intact spines was uncovered by a family (Wilson I think) in a public digging site just out of town. Apparently the 10 year old girl was fossicking by herself and found a large vertebra, The family went on to discover the whole backbone of a marine creature which was named after them - WilsonSomethingosaurus. We went to that area on a Dig at Dusk tour and everyone found fossils of some sort. I found what the paleontologist identified as part of the jawbone of an icthyosaur, He had recently found others in that area and seemed to be disappointed that he had missed that one. Although I could have kept it, I gave it to him for the museum,

Hughenden is widely advertised for dinosaurs. I was disappointed to find that most were replicas or artistic representations. The museum had a few cases of fossils and bones but more information was provided through static displays. Some of these have been posted to Cory's blog: coryss.blogspot.com