T-shirts

Still no decision on the colour of the 2009 dig crew T-shirts.

New Vollies

We had a great day on Saturday talking to the applicants to be new volunteers in 2009.
I only scared two away by telling them of the Inverloch bathroom arrangements!
We've met a few that I'm really looking forward to working with...
Cheers, Wendy.

Friends' Field Report Day

Hi Team,
We had a great day on Saturday presenting the 2008 Field Report.



Gerry handed out reports and
counted attendees out the front.

Lesley kicked things off

...and really enjoyed telling us about the turtle skull!

Tom talked about mammal jaws next to a beautiful
Peter Trussler image of Bishops Whitmorei.

Dave (becoming known as a hand and foot
expert) played with the light pointer.

We also had reports from John W and Mike C, as well as a stirring rendition of "Under the Southern Cross We Stand..." from Nicole.

For more, you'll need to wait for your copy of the Field Report!

Plans for the 2008/2009 Field Season

Hi Team,
I may not have blogged for a while, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy planning for this summer!
We're finalising dates for an "Eric the Crayfish" Otway trip in the first week in December.

We're busy checking everything for Inverloch 2009.
Crew members will be pleased to learn that we have secured the Lavington St property for another year, and the dig is almost certainly going to be from 1 Feb to 28 Feb (a 4 week field season).
We're planning to return to the popular "Popcorn of the Cretaceous" T-shirt design, and are having a healthy debate about colours.
We're likely to concentrate on "Bridge East" and John has designed a new "retaining wall" system. I look forward to posting some pictures in February!

Rookies Information day is pencilled in for 25 October.

Friends' Info Day

Pencil 18th October in your diaries for Friends Information Day.
Those of you not Friends of Dinosaur Dreaming can join at http://www.sci.monash.edu.au/msc/dinodream//.

An Andy Warhol Moment

At Dino Dreaming, we are as thrifty as we can be with our sponsor's dollars.
I think that Darren has captured the essence of this.

Cheap imported soup we bought in bulk last year (or perhaps the one before that).


I'm not sure what the tiny dinosaurs represent...

Preliminary results

A well preserved ornithopod tibia

Paired turtle pubes (hip bones) and a turtle coracoid
found only centimetres away from the hip bones.

Fused turtle sacral vertebrae. This bone was described by Wendy as
"a square bone with four feet" so I just had to prepare it.

It has now been nearly three weeks since the Dinosaur Dreaming 2008 dig came to an end. For some it is back to the real world and a normal job. However, for a privileged few the real fun begins. Preparation of the specimens that were found during the dig has begun and the preliminary results are looking good:

Over 700 fossil bones and teeth were catalogued during the dig, not including the "shoulder bones", which are bone fragments too incomplete to catalogue. Some of the stand-out specimens to have been identified include the three mammal jaws, which are in David Pickering's capable hands, waiting to be prepared. Gerry Kool's lovely ornithopod maxilla could turn out to be very interesting if it can be determined that it is Qantassaurus intrepidus. David is also working on this specimen.
At least 28 individual ornithopod teeth were identified and more will no doubt turn up during examination of the material. Only 6 theropod teeth were found, which is a little down on the average number. More than 120 isolated theropod teeth have been recovered from the Flat Rocks site over the last 15 years.
Some nice dinosaur limbs were also found this field season, including an ornithopod femur, at least two tibiae and a fibula. One of the tibiae is shown above.
Some very well preserved turtle elements were also found this year, including a turtle braincase, lower jaw, numerous isolated vertebrae, paired pubes and associated coracoid (shown above). These bones are from a number of individuals and will add more information to our database.
Preparation of more of the fossil bones is ongoing, so stay tuned...