NEW DINOSAUR DISCOVERY FILLING THE GAPS The Museum’s two-week May/June 2013 dig produced a treasure trove of massive fossil bones. In fact, it uncovered so many huge dinosaur bones that staff are wondering where they are going to fit in the Museum’s already overcrowded laboratory.

The Museum’s Executive Chairman David Elliott thinks this was the most productive two weeks of digging he has experienced in more than a decade of dinosaur discovery. David says, “Most digs involve a lot of digging in search of the bone deposit but that wasn’t the case with this dig. As fast as we tried to dig around one bone, we uncovered another. There were bones everywhere – giant limbs, vertebrae and two metre long ribs stacked across each other and joined together by rocky concretions. It was impossible to remove them safely without taking half-a-dozen other bones that were joined to them!”

AAOD Museum Research Associate Dr Stephen Poropat, who is based at Sweden’s Uppsala University, said this discovery would go a long way towards filling in the gaps of knowledge of Winton’s ancient giants. Steve says, “These bones belong to a huge animal that is up there with some of Australia’s largest dinosaurs. The really exciting thing about this site is the number of bones we have found of the same animal. We suspect that it could be Wintonotitan but as only a few complete bones of Wintonotitan have been found, we will need to wait until the bones have been prepared before we are sure. It could be a completely new species! Either way it is very exciting as we have very limited knowledge of Wintonotitan and many of these bones have never been seen before.” (continued on page 2)

AAOD Society Newsletter, No. 8: September 2013 Page 1 of 10 2013 DIG - CONTINUED

According to Judy Elliott, who organises the dig team participants each year, these important discoveries wouldn’t be possible without the support of the hundreds of people who’ve become involved. She says, “We don’t always find a site as good as this year’s but even when we aren’t finding much, people just love being there.” Of course, there’s much more to the digs than digging for fossils. As Judy says, “It’s the fascination of all looking for something and sharing that common goal of finding it, and you might be the first person to uncover it! It’s the thrill of discovery, of making new friends, the evening talks, the laughter and camaraderie that entices our people back each year. Once you’ve been to a dig you’re no longer a digger, you’re a Dugger!” Trish & David making decisions, Judy’s puzzling handiwork and a very busy dig pit

David Elliott says, “Although the dig site is now finished it may not be the end of the story. This site is only 80 metres from a site called ‘Dixie’ which was dug two years ago and we retrieved some beautiful large sauropod vertebrae and front limb bones. Dixie’s bones were in a flood deposit line and I’m almost certain that they have washed downstream from the animal we retrieved this year as they are very similar in size and point back in that direction. If this proves to be correct, Dixie will be one of Australia’s most complete sauropod dinosaur skeletons.”

David says that he is keen to explore the area further with ground-penetrating technology to see if there are any more bones lurking beneath the black soil. In the meantime, preparation of the new discoveries will begin in earnest at the AAOD Museum in 2014.

AAOD Society Newsletter, No. 8: September 2013 Page 2 of 10 FUNDING PARTNERSHIP BRINGS RESULTS Completing the BHP Billiton Cannington- funded video project for the Collection Room tour at the Reception Centre, was a big deal for the Museum. It wasn’t just the amount of animation, writing and filming required, but all the specification, purchase and installation of new audio visual equipment. In all, the project took over a year from confirmation of funding to completion and then launch night.

And a great night it was with everyone in Winton invited to the Royal Open Air Theatre for the public premier of the full- length documentary from which the tour material was extracted.

At right, the Museum’s David Elliott and BHP’s Simone Sheehy (Communities Improvement / Cannington, Copper) celebrate a top result and happy partnership.

WATCH THE STORY OF WINTON’S OUTBACK MONSTERS As reported in the June 2013 AAOD Society newsletter, the “Monsters in the Outback” DVD telling the story of Winton’s dinosaurs is now available via the online shop http://australianageofdinosaurs.com/shop4- books.php

The non-member price is $37.90 being $29.90 for the DVD and $8 for P&H. The member price is $26.90 plus $8 P&H = $34.90. There will be no additional P&H if you wish to order two or more copies.

Unfortunately the current version of the online shop can’t process your 10% member discount so please phone 07 4657-0712 or email me at [email protected] to make your order including your credit card details (Mastercard or Visa, name on card, card number, expiry date). Thank you, Linda Young AAOD Society Co-ordinator

AAOD Society Newsletter, No. 8: September 2013 Page 3 of 10

News from The Jump-Up

RECEPTION CENTRE STILL DRAWING ATTENTON READING If you were disappointed to miss out on buying CSIRO’s Australia’s Fossil Heritage, which isn’t being reprinted due to lack of grant funding, it is available as an e-book http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6580.htm

AAOD visitor Paul Willis invites members to check out his photo essay on prepping a In June, the Museum’s new Reception fossil he found at Richmond. It’s here: Centre, designed by Cox Rayner Architects http://riaus.org.au/articles/a-bone-to-share- Brisbane, won a State Award for Public with-you/ Architecture. It has now been entered in the 2013 National Architecture Awards to be announced in Sydney on 7 November.

The building has also been shortlisted for the finals of World Architecture Festival 2013 in the Display category.

CABOOLTURE GEM CLUB HELPS OUT Our thanks to members of the Caboolture Gem Club who kindly called into the Museum with a donation of prehnite, chrysoprase and fossilised wood for sale in the Museum shop. COOL WEDDING! At right, Club President Paul Futcher talks Rene Elliott’s July wedding to Chris Moore with Museum Tour Guide Alan Bulbeck is perhaps the coolest thing to happen in about the donated items. Winton this winter!

AAOD Society Newsletter, No. 8: September 2013 Page 4 of 10 SAUROPODS GALORE BY DR STEPHEN POROPAT HOW MY WORK AT AAOD HELPS TO FILL GAPS IN OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE ANATOMY OF AUSTRALIA’S ANCIENT SAUROPOD GIANTS

Over the last decade-and-a-half, the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, led by David and Judy Elliott, has uncovered the remains of many different sauropod individuals. Through their efforts, the number of sauropods excavated in Queensland has more than tripled, and our understanding of the anatomy of these animals has increased significantly.

So far, only two sauropods from the Winton Formation have received formal scientific names: Diamantinasaurus matildae and Wintonotitan wattsi. However, there are many more sauropod specimens in the AAOD museum which are no less exciting than these two!

When a dinosaur receives a name, a particular specimen has to form the basis for the name. This is called a type specimen, which must only contain bones from a single individual and should ideally be as complete and well preserved as possible. The type specimen of Diamantinasaurus, also known as AODF 603 or “Matilda”, which is on display in the type room of the AAOD Reception Centre in Winton, clearly represents only one animal (since all of the bones were found at the same site and none are duplicated), and includes an almost complete front limb and shoulder girdle, a less complete but no less impressive pelvic girdle and hind limb, a few back and hip vertebrae and a few ribs.

This means that based on the Matilda specimen alone, we have no idea what Diamantinasaurus’ head, neck or tail looked like. However, if we compare other specimens to Matilda that preserve some of the same bones, and these specimens also contain bones that are not present in the type specimen, we can increase our understanding of Diamantinasaurus’ anatomy.

The material from the Elliot site provides us with an opportunity to do this. At least two animals are present here and one is about the same size as Matilda, the other a bit smaller. The bigger animal is repres- ented by a femur and pelvic elements which are also present in and look close in shape to those preserved of Matilda. However, this animal also preserved a bone not present in the Matilda specimen: a partial neck vertebra. This gives us a glimpse at what the neck bones of Diamantinasaurus looked like. Better yet, the small metacarpal (upper front foot bone) and tibia from the Elliot site also compare well with the type of Diaman- tinasaurus, suggesting that the smaller sauropod may also be a Diamantina- saurus specimen. If this is true, then we will get an idea of what Diamantina- saurus’s braincase (the first non-tooth skull element ever found of an Australian Right scauplae and coracoids of four sauropod dinosaur!), neck and back verte- sauropods; Matilda’s is third from top brae looked like! (continued on page 6) AAOD Society Newsletter, No. 8: September 2013 Page 5 of 10 SAUROPODS GALORE - CONTINUED

An exciting specimen being prepared in the AAOD laboratory at the moment, nicknamed Oliver, clearly represents a very small sauropod, based on the tiny (~15cm long) back vertebra preserved. This back vertebra looks like a tiny copy of some of the vertebrae from the Elliot site. This may mean that Oliver is a small Diamantinasaurus, if you consider eight metres to be small!

Another specimen in the collection, nicknamed McKenzie, is only represented by the two lower leg bones (tibia and fibula) and a few other fragments. We cannot compare McKenzie against the type of Wintonotitan, also known as Clancy and on display at Queensland Museum, because this specimen does not preserve any back limb bones. However, we can compare it to the Diamantinasaurus type specimen, since Matilda preserves both her tibia and fibula.

I don’t think McKenzie is a Diamantinasaurus based on this comparison – McKenzie is ~25% larger and his leg bones are more lightly built than those of Matilda. This means McKenzie could be a specimen of Wintonotitan, but we can’t be sure because we can’t compare them to one another directly. Fortunately, another specimen called Bob preserves a partial fibula which looks just like McKenzie’s, as well as some tail vertebrae which look like Clancy’s – if I can show that Bob is a Wintonotitan, I may also be able to show that McKenzie is too! More interesting still is a dinosaur named Mick. He is represented by several vertebrae, a partial hip bone, a humerus (upper arm bone) and a few other fragments. His humerus does not look like Diamantina- saurus’, but it might be more similar to Wintonotitan’s. His tail vertebrae are also similar to those preserved in the Clancy and Bob specimens. If Mick is also a Wintonotitan, we know that this animal had a very long neck (based on Mick’s hugely elong-ated neck vertebrae) and a short tail (based on Mick’s short tail vertebrae)! Wintonotitan may have looked more like a brachiosaur (long neck, short tail) than a titanosaur (medium neck, medium tail) if this is the case.

The dinosaurs dug up at the Dixie (2011) and Pete (2012-2013) sites both appear not to be On specimens of Diamantinasaurus. The ulna from the Dixie site is like that of Wintonotitan based on the shape of the elbow, the Dixie site vertebrae are like those of Mick, and the tibia recovered from Pete looks different to Matilda’s. If we can show for sure that Dixie and/or Pete represent specimens of Wintono- titan, our understanding of this animal’s The tibia of McKenzie (AODF 590) versus skeletal anatomy will increase massively, the tibia of Diamantinasaurus since we dug up a lot of limb bones at the matildae holotype (aka Matilda or AODF Pete site and a lot of vertebrae at the Dixie 603), both shown in medial view site which are not preserved in the Clancy specimen. (concluded on page 7)

AAOD Society Newsletter, No. 8: September 2013 Page 6 of 10 SAUROPODS GALORE – CONCLUDED

Another important outcome of my work at AAOD is that I will soon be able to look at the sauropods at Queensland Museum (which were mostly collected in the 1970s before I was born!) and work out if they belong to any of AAOD’s sauropods. I have already worked out that a sauropod specimen from Lovelle Downs Station collected over forty years ago is probably from a Diamantinasaurus, meaning that we have a good idea where to go if we want to find another Diamantinasaurus specimen!

Of course, there are a few specimens at AAOD which we cannot currently place in either Diamantinasaurus or Wintonotitan. Wade is a good example, because even though we can compare him against both of these animals’ type specimens, he is clearly different to both and will need to be named as a new species – this will hopefully happen by the end of the year.

Another specimen, nicknamed Munroe, cannot be assigned to either of the currently named species for a different reason: the only good bone we have from the site is a metatarsal (an upper back foot bone), and no other specimens that have been prepared at AAOD to date preserve metatarsals. It is probably that Munroe belongs to one of our existing species, but at the moment we have no way of knowing.

One thing is certain, though: future work at AAOD will help solve many of the mysteries currently surrounding the anatomy of Australia’s sauropods. Eventually, I hope that we will be able to identify each of our sauropods based on only one or two bones – incredibly, I think we’re already getting close to achieving this!

I hope that my research in the Museum over the next few months will help to highlight how the incredible efforts of AAOD’s volunteers and staff are helping to increase our understanding of Queensland’s ancient giants and will, in future, allow us to understand their significance to the story of sauropod evolution as a whole. Stephen Poropat

Dr Stephen Poropat in the Museum laboratory photographing and comparing fosilised sauropod bones

AAOD Society Newsletter, No. 8: September 2013 Page 7 of 10 DINOSAUR CLUB RULES, OK!

What could help with young children’s literary and vocabulary skills, co-ordination abilities, enjoyment of art and science, internet searching and questioning practice, and be all about Australia? Of course, it’s Dinosaur Club – definitely the hottest place to be at Grafton Public School and the brain child of Ali Calvey.

Ali and Hugh Calvey came to Winton in their 4WD, discovered the AAOD Museum of Natural History, became Foundation members and have been raving fans ever since. They dig, prep, mention the Museum to everyone they meet, give away mementos and buy memberships for friends. Then, bursting with enthusiasm for the Museum and wanting to share the experience, Ali contacted her neighbour’s children’s local school – Grafton Public School. The pupils had done a project on overseas Australian dinosaurs but here was Ali, who’d been on a real dinosaur dig, had worked in the Laboratory preparing fossils, had amazing photos to show and could answer all the eager questions. Ali started doing regular class visits clocking up over 20 classes a term, from Years 2 to 6. The idea of dinosaur projects emerged, for example, learning about dinosaur eggs, researching a specific Australian dinosaur and the track ways at Lark Quarry. Students learned how dinosaurs are named, made and “prepped” dinosaur eggs and kept dinosaur diaries. The school sandpit became the lunch time dig pit and Ali demonstrated how dig finds are jacketed and explained why.

Dinosaur Club had arrived! The school library’s dinosaur book collection grew with the most popular books being … you guessed it, the Museum’s annual Journals with membership sponsored each year by the Calveys, along with memberships for seven other schools. Ali explains that the children deserve to know what’s going on, to learn about their past and to be involved with the future. Her satisfaction comes from guiding them in their quest for understanding. Ali, AAOD thinks it’s a great story and applauds your efforts wholeheartedly!!

CONTACT AUSTRALIAN AGE OF DINOSAURS Telephone 07 4657-0712 Web www.australianageofdinosaurs.com.au Email [email protected] (Shop and info on Dig-A-Dino, Prep-A-Dino) Fax 07 4657-0716 Post PO Box 408, Winton 4735, Queensland Bookings 07 4657-0079 Visit Dinosaur Drive (off Landsborough Hwy), Winton

AAOD Society Newsletter, No. 8: September 2013 Page 8 of 10 COLOUR IN DINO MUM & BABIES Artist Irene says, “Wendy smiles up at Linda as George tries to find his head!”

Trish says that MYSTERY BONES like this one have special bony or cartilaginous shell which is developed from the animal’s ribs and acts as a shield. Hmmm…

Join the AAOD team at DIG-A-DINO 2014 To find out more about going on a dig, please contact Dig Co-ordinator Judy Elliott on tel 07 4657-0414 or email [email protected] There is dig slide show and information on http://australianageofdinosaurs.com/aa-dig-a-dino.php The 2014 two-week dig will be from 25 to 31 May and 1 to 7 June and is nearly fully booked already. Please contact Judy Elliott if you want to attend the dig and, if there is sufficient interest, a third week will probably be arranged.

AAOD Society Newsletter, No. 8: September 2013 Page 9 of 10 ALL HANDS ON DECK

The days are super-busy at this time of year and then, as the sun goes down, the BBQ gets turned on for our tour group visitors. Thanks to Board member Carol Trewick for this sunset shot of Trish, Kat, Steve and George – the beaut aprons are available on the website shop!

Tour Guide Caren Elliott (no relation to the Museum’s founding family) shows off the recently named “Cretaceous Café” which is being run brilliantly this tourist season by Darren and Jenny Findlay (below left).

Another new face this season is Boyd (“Bones”) Watson, at left, who is loving the diverse Tour Guide role. AND THE MYSTERY BONE IS …

AAOD Society Newsletter, No. 8: September 2013 Page 10 of 10