AAOD JOURNAL
ISSUE 7

This latest issue tells the full story
of Australia's newest dinosaurs;
Banjo, Matilda and Clancy

FEATURES

22  WALTZING THE BILLABONG
      Australia's newest dinosaurs
      Story by Robyn Molan

50  JOURNEY TO  HORSESHOE BEND
      Searching for the elusive Mihirung
      Story by Gilbert J Price

56  PECAMBRIAN PURSUIT
      Ancient world of stromatolites
      Story by Mark Stevens

68  SECRETS OF A  ROCK FROM SPACE
      Message in a meteorite
      Story by Ken Collerson

78  BOUNTY OF AN INLAND SEA
      Fishing with a rock saw
      Story by Paul Stumkat

REGULARS 
2    EDITORIAL

4    DIGGERS DIARY NEWS AND VIEWS

6    BLACKSOIL
      Beast or Bait Fish?
      An Australian Multituberculate from the Age of Dinosaurs
      Sea-Stars on a Cretaceous Beach
      In the Flick of a Flipper
      Tracks Through Time

13  DIARY OF AN AUSTRALIAN DREAM

84  SCIENCE BEHIND THE SCENES

86  PALEO PROILE

88  TAILBONES

OUR COVER

Receding flood waters allow scavengers access to the carcasses of drowned dinosaurs in a shallow billabong. The recent discovery in western Queensland of Diamantinasaurus matildae and Australovenator wintonensis entombed together in an ancient billabong has intrigued scientists. This illustration offers a possible explanation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Front Cover: Laurie Beirne.

Blacksoil: Dr Benjamin Kear, Dr Tom Rich, Dr Alex Cook, Maria Zammit

Diary of an Australian Dream: Ron Keough, Trish Sloan,

Features: Robyn Molan, Dr Gilbert Price, Mark Stevens, Professor Ken Collerson, Paul Stumkat (see articles for further acknowledgements)

Palaeo-Profile: Jessica Burt

On the 3rd of July 2009, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh made a special trip to Winton to officially open the first stage of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum. The simple snip of a ribbon saw the culmination of many years of hard work and commitment including the funding support of State and Local Governments and the philanthropic contribution of countless people and businesses from around Australia

But there was more! As the crowd moved into the new building they were met with a stunning display of dinosaur fossils. Behind rows of dinosaur bones laid out on plinths before them stood the partially reconstructed skeleton of a carnosaur with huge slashing claws. Life sized reconstructed limb bones of a massive sauropod towered above them! To a stunned audience the Premier then announced the discovery and scientific analysis of three new species of Australian dinosaurs to the world.

Australovenator, Diamantinasaurus and Wintonotitan! The new Australian dinosaurs made headlines around the world and are the first new dinosaurs to be formally named from the Winton Formation. But as everybody stood before these prehistoric relics they had the opportunity to marvel at much more than an awesome dinosaur display. Here was proof of what can be achieved by ordinary people who set out to do extraordinary things. Every single dinosaur bone before them had been painstakingly prepared by Australian Age of Dinosaurs with the help of hundreds of volunteers. And every one of them – each representing hundreds of hours of work – had been prepared in an old corrugated iron shed on a local sheep station. These beautiful fossils had been brought from rock entombed bones to a quality display standard in little more than two years!

Australia’s natural history. It is this combination that has struck a chord in the hearts of so many Australians. It could not and would not have happened otherwise, and this alone highlights the crucial necessity of an institution based in the heartland of Australia’s dinosaurs to ensure that our work can continue into the future.

As I write this I look at the calendar. It is Saturday, July 11 and I am reminded that this editorial should have been written months ago!  Things just haven’t stopped and it is almost impossible to keep up to the daily activities of the organisation. Even as we wind down from the opening of Stage 1 we are cranking up for the launch of Stage 2. And in between we struggle to fit the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Journal into an already over-committed schedule.

There is a saying “you shouldn’t bite off more than you can chew” but unfortunately it does not go on to say what you do when you find yourself in this position. But we know the answer. “Just keep on chewing!” Regardless of how big a job is, it can always be worn down eventually and it is this persistence that has made many things possible.

As Australian Age of Dinosaurs moves toward the end of its seventh year we can be proud that the first chapter of a unique story has now been completed and the real story of Australia has finally hit the open highway. This is not some passing fad designed to give us all a warm and fuzzy feeling. It is the heart and soul of a continent that was here billions of years before us and will be here for billions of years after we are gone. Australia has earned our respect and deserves to be honored accordingly. We have the people to tell her story and the passion to tell it well. And we have the beginnings of an iconic institution in which to do it.

David Elliott