Nature Travel
Specialists
nature tours & travel, wildlife tours, adventure
travel and general travel to Australia, Southeast Asia, South America
and Alaska
FOSSIL DIGS IN QUEENSLAND
Enoy
finding a different sort of Australian wildlife - dinosaurs, megafauna
and fossil rainforest wildlife.
Queensland Museum fossil digs for 2005 start in April,
with a focus on the Megafauna of the Darling Downs. From June there
will be week-long explorations in Western Queensland, home of Australia`s
largest dinosaur Elliot, and in August attention turns to prehistoric
rainforest animals found in ancient cave deposits near Rockhampton.
Australia is one of the last frontiers for palaeontological
exploration and Queensland has a most comprehensive fossil heritage,
dating back 1700 million years. Queensland Museum is at the forefront
of Australian palaeontology with fossil sites throughout the state
unearthing giant dinosaurs, extinct Megafauna and ancient reefs and
rainforests. These digs are not only fun, but give participants the
opportunity to work alongside skilled palaeontologists, learning on
the spot as well as providing invaluable support to the researchers.
Lead Scientist Dr Cook describes what you'll be doing,
and how you'll be helping:
"It takes time to delicately dig out these ancient
remains, so the more people we have, the more material we are able
to collect to take back to the Museum to continue our study,"
Dr Cook said. "We`re uncovering new material all the time and
the thrill of excavating dinosaur bones millions of years old that
no one has ever seen before, is an experience dig participants will
never forget. We`re finding evidence that animals known as Megafauna
including marsupial lions, wombat-like creatures called Diprotodons
and even giant lizards known as Megalania roamed the Darling Downs.
In Western Queensland we are digging up the massive
remains of dinosaurs including the giant sauropod Elliot, who once
roamed the forested floodplains surrounding the inland sea that covered
a third of Australia. At sites near Rockhampton research is providing
invaluable fossil evidence of climate change throughout Australia
over the last 5 million years.
Queensland Museum Dig costs (about $90 to $180 per
day, including accommodation and some to all meals), information fact
sheets and participant application forms are available from Nature
Travel Specialists -call tollfree 1 877 285 1170, or at www.qmuseum.qld.gov.au/2005/dinodig/
Email queries: ask_us@naturetravelspecialists.com
or digs@qm.qld.gov.au
Dates: The 2005 Queensland Museum
Digs are:
July 8-11: Death on the Downs, Clifton.
In search of Australia`s megafauna
June 20-26 June, June 27-July 3, and September
12-18: The Elliot Dig, Winton. Elliot - Australia`s largest
dinosaur (supported by Australian Age of Dinosaurs)
August 1-7, August 7-13, September 26-October
2, October 2-8: The Mount Etna Dig, Rockhampton. Discover
an ancient rainforest menagerie.
Like
to see some living, breathing wildlife while you're in Australia?
Let us add a platypus search and mammal spotlighting in North Queensland,
koalas in Victoria, fairy penguins, kangaroos and Cape Barren Geese
on Kangaroo Island, or the Great Barrier Reef. Or just about any of
Australia's amazing wildlife. Call tollfree 1 877 285 1170 or email
for more information, including international air and hotels while
you're there.
