Friday 19 June 2015

The vertebra that Jess found

I've heard from the lab that the vertebra that Jess found in week 3 just might be pterosaur.  And Dave Pickering tells me that there might be other pterosaur material from the 2015 dig as well. Exciting!

Save the date - Field Report Day

Field Report Day 2015 is being planned for the afternoon of Saturday 14 November, at Melbourne Museum.  Details to follow.

Dino Movie Screening raises over $2000


Our movie night raised more than $2000 which will go towards funding the 2016 Field Season.  Money is urgently needed to pay for accommodation, food and equipment so that we can find more dinosaurs, pterosaurs, marine reptiles turtles, and (of course) mammals.
Mike Cleeland and Dr Tom Rich introduced the movie, and then everyone seemed to have a great time watching people getting eaten by dinosaurs and many of us now want a raptor pack for Christmas.
Nicole Evered bought the winning raffle ticket and now has a beautiful hand-painted replica of the theropod claw we found in 2014.
Thanks to Jacquie Smith and the Rivoli Cinemas for organising.

Thursday 18 June 2015

Dating the Otway Cretaceous

Dr Tom Rich has informed us that despite high seas and rain squalls, the first field trip to collect rock samples for pollen analysis by Barbara Wagstaff was successful
In two days, they managed to visit all the fossil tetrapod sites east of Cape Otway in the Otway Ranges and collect samples from each
Besides Barbara herself, the party consisted of Mike and Pip Cleeland, Alan Tait, Tim Ziegler, Stephen Gallagher and Tom Rich.
Pollen Analysis will provide us a better estimate of how old the Otways rock are, and perhaps even things about what the climate was like at the time.
After a decade of trying to fund this needed project, the actual execution of it has at last begun!