Australia: Dinosaurs on show in Apollo Bay

From Weekly Times Now (Melbourne, Victoria): Dinosaurs on show in Apollo Bay
THE dinosaurs of the Otways are back.

An exhibition created by some of the world's leading palaeontologists, and comprising more than 300 individual and cast fossils, including full skeletons discovered in the Great Southern Continent of Gondwana, opens in Apollo Bay this week.

Gondwana was made up from what are now known as Australia, South America, Antarctica, Africa and India.

"Wildlife of Gondwana" will focus on the dinosaurs of the Otways, some from more than 3.8 billion years ago.

The dinosaurs found in Apollo Bay are from the Cretaceous period, 106 million years ago.

Fossils of these fascinating creatures were blasted from rocks on the Otway coast between 1984 and 1994, and some are still being discovered.

The first "trackway" of footprints was found recently and scientists don't know what else may be in the area.

One of the original palaeontologists, Professor Pat Vickers-Rich of Monash University, put the final touches on the exhibition on Monday. Prof Vickers-Rich and her husband, Tom Rich, a fellow paleontologist and senior curator at Museum Victoria, started digging around Apollo Bay in the 1990s.

The original discovery of the first bone at Dinosaur Cove was made by Tom, along with Tim Flannery and Mike Archer, in 1981.

"It's special because this is the first time the exhibition has come to a regional venue," Prof Vickers-Rich said. "It's fitting because what was found here has really impacted on the world view of how tough dinosaurs could be."

* The exhibition, at 313 Barham River Rd, will run until April 15.