Some finds at Eagles Nest

A couple of weeks ago a team led by Mike Cleeland collected four bones from Eagles Nest. One of them was this interesting limb bone from near "Lesleys Lair" that Steve Broady found.  It appears to be crushed along its length, which may be an indication of a theropod.  They collected most of it, and went back for the rest on this Saturday 18^th May, plus one other small platy bone.

Steve Broady's bone



Pip found this interesting specimen in two parts from an erratic west of Eagles Nest.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth is included in recognition of Pip's British heritage.

 

Gastroliths

For many years, Mike Cleeland has been delighting young visitors to the Flat Rocks site with his famous searches for dinosaur remains, both during the dig and more recently through the Bunurong Environment Centre.

Most trips, at least one visitor finds a dinosaur bone, and a couple of others isolated, rounded stones in the conglomerate.  For many years, Mike has speculated that these may be gastroliths (stomach stones).  Recently he stumbled across a University of California Museum of Palaeontology (UCMP) article that summarises the current thinking.  There is still no evidence that small-bodied ornithopods or toothed theropods used gastroliths.  Of course, nothing says that they couldn't have...

So I reckon Mike's going to keep sending young visitors home with a gastrolith and encouraging them to learn a bit more science.

Koonwarra 2014

A larva (maybe caddis fly?) from
the 2013 Koonwarra dig

After the success of the Koonwarra dig this year (lots of fish found and the bedding planes turn out to be pretty straightforward), Dr Tom Rich and Prof Tim Flannery are proposing an eight week dig in 2014, after the Flat Rocks and Eric the Red West digs.  Since one of the largest expenses is the bulldozer to expose the site and fill it in again, this would allow lots of detailed dinosaur (and mammal, I guess) hunting between bulldozer time.  And they'd need a crew of 20 volunteers at any time, which may mean more than 100 people involved over the course of the dig.  Of course, all of this is very preliminary - there's funding and permits and logistics to figure out before this becomes a reality - any of which could delay or derail it.  I expect that Tom will tell us all more on Field Report day, including what opportunities exist for past and present Dinosaur Dreaming volunteers to become involved.
It's pretty exciting...

From Peggy

Dave at the microscope

Peggy sent me a few of the photos that she took in the back yard at Cape Paterson this year.



Wendy and Jodi kicking back

No idea what I'm doing with my hands





Eve, Pip and Sauvignon Blanc