Dinosaur hunt at Inverloch

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Dinosaur hunt at Inverloch

Careful digging: Mary Walters, volunteer with Monash University, at The Caves at Inverloch during the annual Dinosaur Dreaming digging event recently.

VOLUNTEERS from Monash University and Museum Victoria congregated at The Caves at Inverloch recently for the annual Dinosaur Dreaming fossil digging event.

The famed, rocky coastline of The Caves and Flat Rocks is home to one of only a handful of polar dinosaur sites globally.

The sites were founded in 1991, with experimental digging commencing three years later.

In 1995, volunteer crew were so caught up in their work they subsequently dreamt of dinosaurs away from digging. Subsequently, the name ‘Dinosaur Dreaming’ was coined.

The significance of The Caves and Flat Rocks sites are such that they house four groups of mammal fossils, comprising mini monotremes (some of the oldest and lowest Order of Mammalia in the world); two types of tribusphenics (insectivore molars) and multituberculates (small rodent like mammals).

The sites are world famous for mammals and about 40 different fossil varieties have been discovered at The Caves alone.

Jaws and molars discovered in 2004 at The Caves were an Australian first and a one day dig event in 2017 discovered more, with the only other site in the Southern Hemisphere sharing these oldest discoveries being Argentina.

“Some 125 million years ago, Australia was attached to Antarctica when the world was known as Gondwanaland,” Dinosaur Dreaming dig coordinator Lesley Kool said.

“This site has great historical importance and a dinosaur discovered here was named Qantasaurus Intrepidus. We think Inverloch was home to a one kilometre wide river channel system, home to flying reptiles such as the pterosaur and plesiosaur.”

The Inverloch dig will be held from February 9 to 28.

“As of February 21, we’ve found 140 bones but unfortunately no mammals,” Ms Kool said.

“We expect to find 200 by our last day. We found a juvenile theropod tooth and a pterosaur tooth, the latter being the first find for our field season.

“Of the 140 bones, many comprise limbs and vertebrae of unknown origin.

“The identification process involves preparing them by removing fossils from rocks before final identification.

“From 1994-2013 we ran 20 consecutive field trips to Inverloch. From 2014-17 Dr Tom Rich decided to concentrate more on findings at the Cape Otway Lighthouse.

“This was the reason for a six year gap of Inverloch field trips.”

Parks Victoria promotes the fossil digging events and are quick to remind people of the importance volunteers play in such events.

“There is invaluable scientific research conducted here in Inverloch and it’s a massive collaboration with many organisations,” policy officer at Parks Victoria Elizabeth Dalgleish-White said.

“We cannot say thank you enough for the some 700 volunteers that have participated throughout the past 15 years, digging in two week stints.

“Monash, Deakin and Swinburne universities work in conjunction with the South Gippsland Conservation Society, Museum Victoria, Bunurong resident groups and the Inverloch RACV, to name a few.”

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Posted by on Feb 26 2019. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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