Rookies’ Day

 Last week we took three enthusiastic rookies down to Eagles Nest to show them the site we intend to dig in February. Thanks to Corrie for the site photos.

Back in Wonthaggi breaking rock, Wade found his first Dinosaur Dreaming fossil!

Theropod skulls and bird footprints - new publications

 Hi Everyone,

It's been a while since I last posted (sorry!), but I have news of two exciting publications to share:

The first is a paper by Jake Kotevski et al about a megaraptorid skull element found at Shack Bay: A megaraptorid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) frontal from the upper Strzelecki Group (Lower Cretaceous) of Victoria, Australia - ScienceDirect

The second describes 27 bird footprints on the Bass Coast: Earliest known Gondwanan bird tracks: Wonthaggi Formation (Early Cretaceous), Victoria, Australia | PLOS ONE

Here is some of the popular press reports:

• ‘World’s oldest’ megaraptorid bone found at Shack Bay (sgst.com.au)
• A megaraptorid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) frontal from the upper Strzelecki Group (Lower Cretaceous) of Victoria, Australia - ScienceDirect

• 125-million-year-old footprints rewrite the history of birds in Australia - Museums Victoria
• Australian discovery of 120m-year-old footprints provides earliest evidence for birds in southern hemisphere | Australia news | The Guardian
• Birds set foot near South Pole in Early Cretaceous, Australian tracks show (emory.edu)
• Fossil footprints found on Victorian coast 'oldest evidence of birds in southern hemisphere' - ABC News
• Fragile bird footprints dating back to over 100 million years discovered on the Southern Australia coast - Science (monash.edu)
• Fossil footprints are the oldest traces of birds in Australia | New Scientist
• NEW DISCOVERY: Earliest evidence that birds set foot near South Pole 125 million years ago (sgst.com.au)
• Birds set foot near South Pole in Early Creta | EurekAlert!

Exciting find

I have to be really careful about what I say here, but the amazing Melissa found something pretty amazing last Thursday. We're not sure what it is, but it is big... We are hoping to get it scanned soon so we know what we are dealing with. Watch this space!

Nice bone from "NoddyLand"

 

Yesterday Mike collected this beautiful centrum that Melissa found.

More photos from Fotini

Adam carries stuff

The crew works in the bright sun

Alan stares at rocks

Marion gets organised

Extracting rock

 

Unstable Palaeontologists - photos from Fotini

 

Panoramas by Doris

 

Dinosaurs amongst us - photo by Adam

 

Staring at fossils

 

Corrie looks at a fossil

Wendy looks at a fossil

Vials

 When the film-camera industry collapsed, we thought that we might run out of vials to use for collecting fossil frags (and teeth on small rocks!) in the field. Not so. Cleaning out the dig equipment shed revealed hundreds of the lost treasures, and we are now set for many many years to come.

Doris atop her pile of vials

Packing them neatly into boxes

Fashions in the Field - with buckets

Fotini poses on the beach

 

Sentinel Times published today

 

The Bass Coast Shire Council has been posting about our dig

CEO Video on site

Group photo with BCSC

Fashions in the field - with hoses

Amber rocks the carrying look

 

John's boots fall apart - photos by Doris

 

Boot digging fairly well

Boot leaking badly

Boot with its insides on the outside

Timelapse digging video from Jack

 

Some cool photos from Jack

 

Watching the crew work from the other side of the hole

Building a sandbag wall

Atmospheric clouds

Cleaning the site

Jake sweeping the hole

The hole filling with water

The hole crews working

Jack and John hanging with visiting Palaeo Ruairidh

Crew photo

 

Many thanks to the exceptionally talented Zev Landes from the Bass Coast Dinosaur Trail for the augmented reality!

Sandbags

 Yesterday we removed the sandbags...

And washed them...

Carried them up the hill and hung them up to dry.

Sentinel Times story

 https://www.sgst.com.au/news/dino-hunters-back-on-the-fossil-trail

WIN News comes to visit

 https://www.leadstory.com/v/dinosaur-hunters-start-colossal-dig-on-the-bass-coast-202321451?fbclid=IwAR3_CWsruH267PfCGo46IdXbulbSoMD4bSCD5CNzO8cltYE0A4lkRcqogXs

Crew Photo

 

Day 4 - The creatives from the Bass Coast Dinosaur Trail visit

Today we were visited by some of the design team behind the Bass Coast Dinosaur Trail. This trail will celebrate the dinosaurs and other animals found on the Bass Coast. Installations are planned from San Remo to Inverloch, and the designers came seeking inspiration from the work that we do. It was a lot of fun talking to them and sharing ideas. Zev from that team has been working at our site for most of the week. I was way too busy when everyone else was at site to take photos...

Read all about the trail here: Bass Coast Dinosaurs Trail | Engage Bass Coast

Synchronised Digging

Alan confers with Mary and Marion

Amber and John S in the bucket line

Zev confers with Jack and Jake

Zev confers with Doris

Zev sketches while John W and Alan extract rock

 

Day 3 - Lots more shovelling

John W resisting on three shovels

John W and Adam passing off a bucket

The cool little toe-like fossil that Dean found