Winton

What a wonderful opportunity to witness the painstakingly fascinating process of unearthing actual dinosaur bones around 95 Million years old! In 1999 while mustering sheep on his property Belmont near Winton, David Elliott discovered the fossilised bone of what was, at the time, Australia’s largest dinosaur. This bone was later identified as part of a giant femur from a Cretaceous sauropod (long necked 🦕 ) that roamed the Winton area 95 million years ago. Since then, diggings have unearthed a treasure trove of fossils. One of their most exciting finds was that of “Matilda” (a sauropod) and “Banjo” (a theropod - bit like a velociraptor ) lying together- with 30% of their bones in tact - apparently a huge bonus in palaeontology. Their best theory is that Matilda was stuck in mud ( a common thing for huge 30 tonne beasts back in the day, apparently) so Banjo saw his opportunity and attacked. Matilda managed to slap him down, probably with her tail, and killed the little rascal.
There were so many other stories and the enthusiasm of staff was infectious. We met some volunteers as they were working on “ Judy”, a sauropod only unearthed three weeks ago. They had almost all of her neck bones and were working with high powered precision air drills to clean away 95 million years worth of crud. The pic in the magnifier is one of those pieces. Just awe inspiring!
Tours included the fossil lab, the collection centre where we met Matilda and Banjo, and the March of the Titanosaurs in Dinosaur Canyon, a few Ks from the main centre. This display (complete with cute Dino statues 😃) is a preserved river scene showing footprints of a huge array of dinos as they travel back and forth through and around the drinking holes.
We had a fabulous visit and would love to have the opportunity to volunteer to work on these awesome findings. Maybe next time ! 🦕 🦖 🐊 🦅Read more