Latest Discoveries: 2004, 2005, 2006
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2004
Excerpts from Trawling for the White Gold Australian Age of Dinosaurs* Yearbook. Issue 3, 2005, pp 26-43.
Day one of the 2004 Elliot Dig saw a bone bonanza and as our dig team began to trench around the exposed fragments, bone after bone was discovered. Fifteen new bones in the first two days including a small lungfish tooth plate.
On the second and third day even more bones revealed themselves. Dr. Alex Cook, Senior Curator of Geosciences at the Queensland Museum, unearthed with a Dingo Mini-digger, what turned out to be a large girdle element, possibly a shoulder girdle from a sauropod. By now we were seeing complete ribs and portions of girdle, both shoulder and hip. Again, we were dealing with bones from sauropods, although judging by the size of the rib and girdle elements these particular dinosaurs were not massive. The ribs averaged about 1.3 to1.5 metres in length and looked like an archers bow. From the air, you could be mistaken for thinking we were excavating an ancient Roman military cache, with bows and shields strewn across the ground.
By the end of the first week of the dig our first group of participants had uncovered over 25 bones. The bone tally equalled as many specimens as found in the 2002 and 2003 digs combined and included a shoulder girdle, ischium (piece from the hip girdle), other isolated girdle elements, two amazingly preserved dorsal vertebrae, several near complete ribs, a handful of molluscs and a single lungfish tooth plate.
2005
Excerpts from "End of an Era - Birth of an Age!" Australian Age of Dinosaurs* Yearbook. Issue 4, 2006, pp 66-83.
Prospects at the Elliot site have run dry with the last bone being unearthed, a sauropod tibia (shin bone). We have opened up a new site, dubbed 'Ho-Hum site'. An exciting new site, which has yielded yet another great bounty of dinosaur bones.
2006
Excavations at the Ho Hum site have already dried up, and having moved on to two new localities we have hit a rich layer of dinosaur bones. During the field trip participants continued to prepare the load of bones that had been discovered in previous years. To become involved in these digs and the preparation experience contact the Australian Age of Dinosaurs* for more details.
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