Dino Digging – Winton 2022

Beneath the dry soil, cattle, and sheep, the plains of outback Queensland contain a rich fossil record – ancient inland seas and floodplains host many different species that called this region home during various stages of the Mesozoic. Hosted by the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum in August, Prof. Kliti Grice, Dr Stephen Poropat, Lisa Smith, and Luke Brosnan joined a great crew of volunteer diggers and staff to excavate a 95-million-year-old sauropod at Belmont Station, just outside Winton. During a tour of the Museum and its collection, they also met with founder David Elliott and discussed common goals of the Museum and the WA-OIGC, especially Prof. Grice’s ARC Laureate on exceptional fossil preservation. A 100-million-year-old ichthyosaur jaw in a concretion from the Toolebuc Formation (donated by Karen Corkill) will undergo various organic geochemical analyses very soon!