BANJO IN ROMANIA

The announcement of Australia's newest dinosaurs Australovenator wintonensis (“Banjo”), Diamantinasaurus matildae (“Matilda”) and Wintonotitan watsi (“Clancy”) made headlines around the world and generated an amazing amount of public interest.

In late August 2009 we were contacted by Elena Aftene, Marketing Manager for Moldova Mall, a shopping center in Romania. Elena proposed building a life-size reconstruction of Banjo as part of their new season display. We were very excited by this and even more so when the project expanded to include large-scale reconstructions of Matilda and Clancy! Naturally we helped out by providing artwork and advice, not least because these reconstructions are a world-first, making visitors to Moldova Mall the first to see large-scale representations of these amazing new Australian animals!

We commend Moldova Mall's efforts to preserve the scientific integrity of their display. By referencing the scientific publication of Hocknull et al 2009 and by liaising directly with our research team at Australian Age of Dinosaurs they have created a wonderful exhibit. If you look carefully at the images below you'll even see framed photos of all the bones and other details from the Hocknull et al 2009 publication.

Firicel Radu and Diana Rau, the sculptors who created the dinosaur reconstructions