He says the fact that it wasn’t predated soon after injury suggests Leaellynasaura was a social animal that may have lived in groups. They lived millions of years ago, which means they were here before people, insects, and even flowers. As for what is a “dinosaur” many people say that any creature that has lived for more than 65 million years ago qualifies as one, this would mean that birds, fish, mammals are all included in this classification.

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. As a result, a common way to look for fossils in it was to break each lump with a sledgehammer, and after each blow to examine all new broken surfaces for cross-sections of bone.The first of these was their migration to Australia from the USA in 1973, so that Pat could complete her post-doctoral Fullbright Fellowship at Monash University in Melbourne.

In 1991, the challenge at Slippery Rock was to construct a man-made pillar in the first cross-tunnel, so that the fossil-rich rocky pillar currently shoring up the roof could be removed. s dig included paying-participants from Earthwatch, an American organisation for science enthusiasts, who joined the volunteers.An enormous storage shed had been constructed to protect caravans and gear from corrosion, a platform-scaffold had been erected over the Slippery Rock entrance and redundant tunnels had been fitted out with shelving.

It quickly came to be known as ‘Lake Copco’, as it reached swimming pool proportions and had to be pumped out after every high tide.to 120Ma, Australia was situated over the South Pole, her southeast coast joined to Antarctica to form the supercontinent, Gondwana.

They like to hear stories about their history and imagine what it would be like if they were living today. The first (west) tunnel took a fortnight to complete and was located near the western extreme of Slippery Rock. Like the earlier pneumatic tool work, the use of explosives came with its own set of problems and challenges.He quickly earned the title ‘Mayor of Dinoville’ thanks to his constructions, which included a kitchen and mess hut, a water trailer and lime outhouses.