Pterosaur Tooth

The tooth that Astrid Found

Lesley has done some work on the tooth that Astrid found on Rookies' day.  It was identified as a likely theropod tooth on the day, but it has no serrations.  We now think that it is probably a pterosaur tooth.  Thanks to Lesley for the lovely image with much of the matrix removed.

Safety glasses

Jade sent me these photos of me trying to convince John that he needed to get better at remembering that safety glasses need to be over his eyes to be effective.

Rookie's Day

Eve finds a fossil

Hollow shaft

Ben finds a fossil

Jade finds a fossil

Caitlin finds a fossil

Jessica finds a fossil

Claudia finds a fossil

Fossil

Astrid's tooth

Brigit finds a fossil

Astrid finds a tooth

Caitlin finds another fossil

Dani finds a fossil

Lovely curved bone

Ben finds another fossil

Ben's fossil

James finds a fossil

Visitors 29 Nov

Monique, Mike, Kim, Tricia, Pat, Gary, Tom, Mary, Toni-lee

Yesterday Tom Rich and Pat Vickers-Rich visited Flat Rocks with their guests Gary and Tricia Rathwell,  Gary is thinking about imaging techniques that might work at our sites, including the proposed Koonwarra dig.

Rookies' weekend - 29 Nov

Tony-lee explores the Dreaming Pool

Toni-lee colonises Gerry's rock

Mary finds a lovely caudal vertebra

Monique finds a fossil

Monique likes her fossil

Mary and the caudal vert

Wendy in the swimming hole

 

Just picked up the Field Report

Enjoying the report

I picked up a couple of hundred copies of the 2014 Field Report from the printers today and it looks AWESOME!
I think that makes me all prepared for Saturday.

Field Report Day

A reminder to Friends and Crew that the 2014 Field Report Presentation will be this Saturday, November 22nd, at the Melbourne Museum.

Sneak peek at the 2014 Field Report...

The Front Cover

After a long weekend of proof-reading with Mary and Alanna, the 2014 Field Report has been wrestled under control. Here is a sneak peek of the cover featuring our beautiful big claw.
Friends (not a Friend? join here) can get their copy at the Melbourne Museum on Field Report Day (Saturday 22nd November), or wait for their copy to arrive through the post in the days following that.

Dates for the 2015 Field Season are firming up

Even more likely dates:
Saturday November 22nd 2014 - Field Report Presentation Day and Rookies' Briefing.
Sunday November 30th 2014 - Rookies' Day at Flat Rocks

Saturday January 31st to Saturday February 21st - Dig at Eric the Red West.
(Note change of dates)

A date for Friends' Day at site has not yet been proposed.

Eric the Red West dig in 2015

Dr Tom Rich has informed us that 1 August was the cutoff date for a firm commitment of funding to support an excavation at Koonwarra next year.  As full support for that project has not been forthcoming, if there is to be a dig at Koonwarra, it will not be in 2015 and probably not until at least 2017.  2016 is unlikely because there is a plan to move the palaeontology collections from the basement of the Royal Exhibition Building to Melbourne Museum and key personnel will be committed to that exercise.

 

Because Koonwarra will not be happening in 2015, an excavation at Eric the Red West is now confirmed.

Tentative 2014/2015 Dates

It is extremely unlikely that the Koonwarra inland dig can be organised for early 2015.  The logistics would still take several months' work to finalise.   Therefore, we have started thinking about an ERTW dig for early 2015.

Crew, please pencil the following dates into your diaries.  They are not confirmed yet, but are likely.

Saturday November 22nd 2014 - Field Report Presentation Day and Rookies' Briefing.
Sunday November 30th 2014 - Rookies' Day at Flat Rocks
Saturday February 7th to Saturday February 28th - Dig at Eric the Red West.

A date for Friends' Day at site has not yet been proposed.

Field Report Day

Due to Dr Tom Rich's travel commitments, the Field Report Day is likely to be later than usual this year (November rather than October).  I will post the date once it is finalised.

Good Weekend article

During the Eric the Red West dig in February, John Elder visited the dig.  John is a reporter for the Good Weekend magazine distributed in the Saturday Age.   Last week the article finally appeared.
For those diggers who don't live in Melbourne, or who simply missed it, here it is.

The Bathtub

On a recent fossil prospecting trip east of Potters Hill (led of course by Mike Cleeland), Stephen Broady shot some film.  He calls it The Bathtub.

Filming at Eagle's Nest April 16th

A small group of Dinosaur Dreamers took part in the filming of an episode of "Coast" at Eagle's Nest, near Inverloch on Wednesday April 16th. The weather was perfect and Mike Cleeland topped it off by finding a fossil bone in the shore platform close to where the filming took place.
Dr Tom Rich and Dr. Tim Flannery discussed the discovery of Australia's first dinosaur bone at Eagle's Nest and Tim's student days when he, Rob Glenie and John Long re-discovered the site in the late 1970s.

left: Film crew and volunteers
arriving at Eagle's Nest.

right: Tom and Tim discussing
the history of the area.

left: volunteers breaking rock in the
background

right: Kim Davis, one of the rock breakers

Left: Jeorg found a bone that was so badly
weathered it wasn't worth keeping. Sorry,
Jeorg.

Right: John Wilkins, winner of "Fashions in
the Field" with his stylish helmet.
Fashionable and functional.

Left: Wendy Turner looking
disappointed because her tiny
endless shaft was rejected.

Right: Tom and Tim chatting between takes





                                         


Left: Mike and Tim examine the fossil bone
that Mike found not far from where the
filming was taking place.

Left: Mike prepares to cut out the fossil bone, while
Tim looks on.

 

Flat Rocks video

Steve Pritchard has posted a video of us at Inverloch during Friends' weekend (and a quick flash of the Otways) on YouTube.  Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J25Y-W77Uzk&feature=youtu.be

The rock fall

I've had a couple of queries about how much rock fell down from the cliff. I'm not sure. I don't even know what one is supposed to measure it in.  Tonnes?  Square metres?
I do know that it completely obscured the rock rock (and the big boulder on the right was broken down nearer the cliff).  We had 15 people working on it for about 10 hours, took about 20 buckets to Lesley's shed and left lots of big rocks on the beach.
Perhaps an engineering type could do some calculations?

The rock fall

The rock fall rock on the "rock rock"

The rock fall (rock removed) with buckets for scale 

Friends' Day pics

Pip waits for young artists to arrive

Wendy drums up business for Fotini's geology tour

Peggy spots a fossil

A young artist at work

Peggy with a budding palaeontologist

A green carnivore

A beautiful Brachiosaur

A colourful carnivore