Great Crises in the History of Life



Prof Tim Flannery

 The Monash Science Centre has a new exhibition - Great Crises in the History of Life.  Tonight the exhibition was opened by Professor Tim Flannery, Chief Commissioner of the Australian Climate Commission and 2007 Australian of the Year.  Prof Flannery spoke about the importance of Science Education that allows students to explore, and how exhibitions like this one can contribute towards that.  Afterwards he was kind enough to answer a few questions, sign a few books and chat to some of the students and diggers.

Prof Flannery's speech on YouTube.

Everyone loves their crew T-shirts

The Australian Geographic magazine this month has an article on a new dinosaur site near Winton in Queensland.  Check out palaeontologist Dr Stephen Poropat proudly wearing his 2003 Dinosaur Dreaming volunteer T-shirt.
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/palaeontologists-hit-dinosaur-jackpot-in-queensland.htm.

Catch-up at the MSC

On Saturday a bunch of diggers gathered at the Monash Science to catch up on what we'd been up since February.  Of course, we massively overcatered and didn't have nearly enough time to talk to everyone we meant to!  Thanks to John and Corrie for pulling this together.


Doris baked cryoturbation cake

Diggers mingle at thhe MSC



Dino Diggers & Sir David

Steve Morton took such a great photo that I simply had to share.  Here is Sir David Attenborough looking at our mammal jaw and surrounded by Dino Dreamers lucky enough to be invited to meet him at the Monash Science Centre.  A big thanks to Prof Pat Vickers-Rich and Dr Corrie Willams for including me amongst them.

Sir David Attenborough



Lesley, Tom & Sir David looking at a Cretaceous mammal jaw

 Sir David Attenborough is a patron of the Monash Science Centre and today paid a visit.
A few lucky Dino Dreaming crew got to meet him.

'Coconut' shaped fossil gives clues to the origins of the pygmy right whale

Melbourne Museum palaeontologist Dr Erich Fitzgerald has discovered that a strange 'coconut' shaped fossil is possibly the first fossil evidence of the family Neobalaenidae, a family of whales which contains just one extant species, the pygmy right whale (Capera marginata).

Museum Victoria Blog: http://museumvictoria.com.au/about/mv-blog/aug-2012/first-fossil-of-pygmy-right-whale/

Milk magazine

Gippsland's Milk magazine has an article on our dinos and some incredibly cute cover art!  Check it out at www.themilkmag.com.