Tashi Chophel

Summary essay on "Dinosaur discoveries: The dinosaur musterers" by Abbie

Thomas and Paul Willis
Wayne Rhodes, while scouting his property at Sandhills near Richmond in central
Queensland, he found three meter long fossilized extinct fish (new to a science) named
“Boofhead.” With the frequent discovery of prehistoric fossils in a Queensland has been
labelled as the “Dinosaur Triangle” with increase in fossil hunting. This palaeontological
resurgence has brought both a new light of Australia's ancient past and a curious
alliance between farmer, scientist and field volunteer, united in a common passion for
digging up ancient history.
Rob and his brother Lan on Marsathon Station, while gathering the cattle in homestead,
they found a fossil with a perfect line of interconnecting teeth formed into the shape of a
snout nearby dry creekbed. So, they called in the Queensland Museum and a team led
by Dr Mary Wade and pulled out an almost complete 5meter marine reptile Pliosaur
from Cretaceous period (dated back to 100 million year ago). Later, Lan again finds a
fossile which turned out to be the best specimen so far found of Minmi, a 2.5m
armoured dinosaur unique to Australia. Rob later, he set up a fossil museum in
Richmond and let local landowners to realize what could be found in their soils.
However fossils are technically the property of the State and a license is needed to
collect them, so some landholders donate fossils anonymously.
Dave Elliott (Winton Grazer), ever since the finding of thighbone of Elliot, Australia's
biggest dinosaur, he has been obsessed with the extinct reptile. Most of his time, he
spent organizing, digging and designing on making the permanent Australian Age of
Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History.
Queensland is a dinosaur graveyard of Australia, covered with Cretaceous rock dating
back to 90 and 130 million year ago. It proves that most of Australia content was
submerged in an ocean providing home for fish, turtles and marine reptiles. As
Australia drifted north, the land rose again with massive river systems sweeping
immense quantities of sand and silt into the dwindling inland sea, forming extensive
delta systems that preserved the remains of both estuarine and riverine animals.
Kylie Piper a self-proclaimed dinosaur nerd who has a dinosaur obsession and chases
dinosaurs in her spare time. Her passion has led to her a job as a science
communicator at the Australian Museum. She has betted out a small area of a few
metres and named as Kylie's Corner, strong-minded to find something big. After many
days of digging, she found a vertebra from a long-necked dinosaur, one of the largest
examples found anywhere in Australia.
Jo Wilkinson is a senior technical officer with the Queensland Museum who has spent
up to two months preparing a single piece of bone for studying under a microscope. She
is captivated by taphonomy (a study of organism before and after death, including
processes such as weathering, transportation and scattering). She has bonded with a
specimen after a while, and her recently released book Digging up deep time is a road
trip through the evolution of life in Australia.

References:
Thomas, A., & Willis, P. (2009, June 1). Dinosaur discoveries: The dinosaur musterers. Australian
Geographic. Retrieved March 9, 2023, from https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-
environment/2009/06/dinosaur-discoveries-the-dinosaur-musterers/

Thomas, Abbie, & Willis, P. (2009, June 1). Dinosaur discoveries: The dinosaur musterers.
Australian Geographic. https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2023/03/quark-expeditions-
newest-greenland-voyage-is-in-a-league-of-its-own/