kinds of fossils that are abundant in
the lake deposits of Liaoning province
in north-eastern China, which are of
a similar age (125 million years old)
and have yielded thousands of fossils of
feathered dinosaurs (see our feature on
page 68). The similarity in the ancient
environment and the common fossils,
as well as the rare occurrence of feathers
at Koonwarra, suggests that it could
become the fi rst Australian site to yield
feathered dinosaurs.
Provided $400,000 can be found
from private and public sources, I will
lead a major dig in 2017 to determine
whether this is the case. An exploratory
excavation in 2013 gave us pointers on
how to proceed, but we don’t yet know
whether the lake covered 10ha or
1000ha, or if the existing fossils are
from the centre or the shore. Finely pre-
served dinosaurs with soft tissues as well
as bones would most likely come from
shore deposits, so this may determine
whether whole skeletons can be found
there or their feathers only.
Elsewhere in Gippsland’s Strzelecki
Ranges, there may be dozens or even
hundreds of similar ephemeral lakes,
but trees and grass now obscure
the deposits. In coming decades, as
technology advances, methods such as
ground-penetrating radar may advance
to the point where the lake deposits can
be detected without excavation, and the
most promising parts investigated.
Even if Koonwarra itself does not
yield skeletons of feathered dinosaurs,
with persistence, perhaps by someone
as yet unborn, a site with fossils as spec-
tacular as those of Liaoning may one
day be found in South Gippsland.I
T IS NOT hard to understand why
Antarctica has the weakest dinosaur
record. After all, 98 per cent of it is
now covered with ice. But why Australia
should be a contender for that distinc-
tion is not so obvious.
A palaeontologist seeking dinosaurs
prefers to go to rapidly eroding, hilly
regions with little vegetation. High
erosion rates mean that the chemical
processes of weathering that otherwise
might destroy bones may not have had
suffi cient time to do so. The topog-
raphy means that if fossils are present,
they can be readily seen. Much of
Australia is both fl at and ancient, and so
benefi ts from none of these advantages.
The vast majority of Australia’s 17 or
so known dinosaurs have been found
in three parts of the nation. Over the
past 15 years, on the fl at plains of central
Queensland, the Queensland Museum,
working with the Australian Age of
Dinosaurs Museum, has developed a
method of recovering dinosaurs that is
yielding spectacular results. When fossil
fragments sent to the surface by cycles
of wetting and drying are discovered,
a bulldozer removes about a metre of
overburden to reveal the larger fossils
beneath. This has resulted in the fantas-
tic discovery of the partial skeletons of a
number of larger dinosaurs.
In outback New South Wales and
South Australia, isolated bones are
found in the opal fi elds. Nowhere else
on the planet can you fi nd opalised
dinosaur fossils, translucent enough for
light to pass through them. These
specimens are casts formed in cavities
left by the bones of small dinosaurs and
marine reptile that have dissolved away.
Coastal Victoria is the third place
that yields Australian dinosaurs. Rapid
erosion caused by pounding waves has
exposed a strip of unweathered rockabout 20m wide and 150km long –
a total area of only 300ha. But it has
been suffi cient to yield an assemblage of
dinosaurs as diverse as Queensland’s.
The coastal outcrops typically consist
of hard sandstone deposited in stream
channels. The isolated bones and teeth
found in them were washed there from
the place the animals died and their
skeletons fell apart.
One Victorian site slightly further
inland, however, is quite diff erent.
Exposed in a road cut on the South
Gippsland Highway east of Koonwarra,
it has yielded half-a-dozen feathers,
which are of the right age to be either
from early birds or feathered dinosaurs.
In contrast to the coastal sites that
primarily preserve isolated bones and
teeth, Koonwarra was a quiet lake that
potentially could yield entire feathered
dinosaurs. It lay in a vast fl oodplain
between Australia and Antarctica while
they were in the process of separation
115 million years ago. Across this fl ood-
plain fl owed massive rivers; ephemeral
lakes such as that at Koonwarra came
and went on the margins of those rivers.
As well as feathers, the fossil remains
of small fi sh, insects, and plant material
are found here. These are the sameDR THOMAS RICH, at Museum Victoria
in Melbourne, has been involved in the
discovery of many of the state’s dinosaurs.COMMENTARY
ILLUSTRATION: BEN SANDERSWhy so few dinosaurs?
Although Australia and Antarctica are contenders for
the continent with the poorest record of dinosaurs, there
is a unique opportunity for discovery Down Under.THOMAS H. RICH
September–October 2014 41ag0914p041_column - 36 2014-08-03T09:48:11+10:00