Dinosaur Cove Cretaceous 1: Attack of the Lizard King

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The endocast of the brain was preserved in detail, displaying minute features such as the pineal gland, optic and cerebral lobes. There used to be lots of different types of dinosaurs, but today there are only 3 types left: the velociraptor, the pteranodon and the tyrannosaurus rex. Like the earlier pneumatic tool work, the use of explosives came with its own set of problems and challenges. As the rift valley sank, the deposits were overlaid by sediment, which turned to rock under pressure.

Some quality finds were uncovered, including the pelvis of an unidentified theropod and some ‘weird’ leg bones from a leaellynasaur, which Lesley Kool counts as one of the highlights of her work on the project. Michelle Hird admits to carrying out what she thought was overburden, and to tripping and dropping it into the ocean at the precise moment she realised it wasn’t. tunnel into the cliff, sufficient to expose the ancient stream channel, which had flowed parallel to the rock face. Riley Harrison is a young boy who stumbled across the unlikely discovery of dinosaur eggs near his grandfather’s oceanfront home.The monotremes are small, egg-laying mammals and it was soon apparent that this one was an echidna-like animal, with a sprawling stance. Meanwhile, a steady stream of fossils was being excavated from Dinosaur Cove East, under the guidance of volunteer, Nick van Klaveren.

It was obvious to the team that Leaellynasaura had unusually high visual acuity and this could have only evolved for one reason – to allow the animal to remain active during periods of prolonged darkness. The discovery of pteranodon eggs turns into a mad dash for adventurous young Riley and his friends to get them to safety and out of nefarious hands. The movie was released on June 1, 2022, after some limited theatrical and targeted promotional screenings. Excavating a site as demanding as Dinosaur Cove had been a bold move and all those involved agree they were part of something special – something they are unlikely to experience again.This was set back from the entrance so that a column of rock, nicknamed ‘the pillar’, remained in front of it to support the roof. There were jam sessions and sing-alongs with banjos and homemade instruments, stargazing on blankets in the paddock and playing practical jokes. This exciting addition to the theropod fossil record was named Timimus hermannii after Tim Flannery, young Tim Rich and John Hermann.

Seven weeks later, the three locations had yielded several hundred bone fragments and 368 bags of fossil-bearing rock. The dinosaur taxa, Leaellynasaura amicagraphica and Timimus hermani, are named for the children of the Riches', Tim and Leaellyn.The fossil record has been surprisingly helpful in identifying dinosaur species, and they are represented by thousands of specimens with some having been studied in great detail. In the last 30 million years the sediments have been uplifted to form the Otway Ranges and Strzelecki Ranges, bringing them near the surface again. Bill Hopkins notes “All the girls and women seemed to love working with the noisy tools” then adds cheekily, “all the boys and men loved watching them do it”. After ten long years, the tunnels were boarded up and Dinoville was given back to the snakes and spiders. Dinosaurs are often seen as prehistoric creatures, but they are actually still alive in our sense of them!