Australia is in the midst of an incredible 'dinosaur boom'

Australia is in the midst of an incredible “dinosaur boom*” as record numbers of farmers unearth* ancient dinosaur bones that send tourists flocking to their rural properties.

Up until the 21st Century, dinosaur fossils* were extremely rare to find in Australia, according to Matt Hearne, curator* at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum. The massive island continent was a huge knowledge gap* for palaeontologists* all over the world.

Now, Mr Hearne says dinosaur bones are “bloody everywhere”.

Australia’s dinosaur boom began in 1999, when David Elliot discovered scientifically groundbreaking* fossils on his farm near Winton, 15 hours northwest of Brisbane.

His fellow farmers were nervous about the discovery, as many wondered whether it would allow scientists to seize their property, but Mr Elliot went ahead and contacted a palaeontologist.

It turned out he’d discovered the giant fossilised* thighbone of a sauropod* that roamed Australia some 95 million years ago.

“We were very much a test case for the region. No one else was putting their hand up,” Mr Elliot, 66, recently told the New York Times.

Some of the biggest dinosaurs ever recorded were found Down Under, including a string of newly discovered species*. Australia’s largest dinosaur — Australotitan cooperensis, also known as the “southern titan” — was discovered in Coopers Creek in 2007 and is estimated to have stretched the length of a basketball court.

Many of the incredible finds begin with a farmer tripping over an unusual-looking rock, deep in the sparsely populated* plains* of central west Queensland.

Better yet, the dinosaur boom has fuelled a thriving tourism industry deep in the Australian outback.

Volunteers pay thousands of dollars each to attend palaeontological digs* to visit sites such as the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum on Mr Elliot’s property.

The volunteers, many of whom simply describe themselves as dinosaur-lovers, pay up to $3700 a head to attend a one-week dig in the outback.

The guests are helping to revive* tourism in small towns such as Winton — a town which has seen its population halve to just 1100 in the past two decades. Mr Elliot’s museum, though, attracted 60,000 people in 2021.

“It’s gone absolutely crazy,” Kev Fawcett, the owner of the Winton Hotel, told the New York Times.

Mr Fawcett says the winter season now gets so busy that tourists sleep in their cars, unable to find space in any of Winton’s three caravan parks and four motels.

Meanwhile, a team of researchers have confirmed that 107-million-year-old pterosaur* bones discovered more than 30 years ago are the oldest of their kind ever found in Australia, providing a rare glimpse into the life of these powerful, flying reptiles* that lived among the dinosaurs.

Published in the journal Historical Biology and completed in collaboration with Museums Victoria, the team found the bones belonged to two different pterosaur individuals. The partial pelvis bone belonged to a pterosaur with a wingspan* of over two metres, and the small wing bone belonged to a juvenile pterosaur — the first ever reported in Australia.

Lead researcher and PhD student Adele Pentland, from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said pterosaurs — which were close cousins of the dinosaurs — were winged reptiles that soared* through the skies during the Mesozoic Era*.

“Pterosaurs are rare worldwide, and only a few remains have been discovered ... so these bones give us a better idea as to where pterosaurs lived and how big they were. By analysing* these bones, we have also been able to confirm the existence of the first ever Australian juvenile* pterosaur, which resided in the Victorian forests around 107 million years ago.”

GLOSSARY

• dinosaur boom: a time when many dinosaur fossils are being discovered, creating a lot of excitement and interest
• unearth: to dig up or discover something hidden, like dinosaur bone
• fossils: the remains or traces of ancient plants and animals that have been preserved in rocks
• curator: a person who takes care of and manages a museum or a collection
• knowledge gap: refers to a lack of understanding or information about a particular subject or topic
• palaeontologists: scientists who study fossils to learn about ancient life
• groundbreaking: something that is very important or significant, like a discovery that changes what we know
• fossilised: when something, like a bone, becomes preserved and turned into stone over a long period of time
• sauropod: a type of dinosaur with a long neck and a long tail, like brachiosaurus or diplodocus
• species: a group of living things that are similar and can reproduce with one another
• plains: flat and open areas of land without many trees or hills
• palaeontological digs: excavations or digging activities conducted by scientists to find and study fossils
• revive: to bring back to life or make something active and exciting again
• Pterosaur: a type of ancient flying reptile that lived during the time of dinosaurs
• wingspan: the distance from one wingtip to the other when wings are fully spread out
• soared: fly or glide at a great height or in an upward direction
• reptiles: Animals that have scaly skin and lay eggs, like snakes, lizards, and turtles
• Mesozoic Era: a time period that lasted from about 252 to 66 million years ago, known as the “Age of Dinosaurs”
• analysing: examining and studying something carefully to understand it better
• juvenile: young or not fully grown

EXTRA READING

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3D print to rebuild Australian opal dino

T-rex eye evolved for bigger bite

QUICK QUIZ

1. What did farmers in Australia discover on their properties that made tourists visit?
2. Why didn't some farmers want to report their dinosaur bones discovery?
3. Who discovered the giant fossilised thighbone of a sauropod in 1999?
4. How has the dinosaur boom affected tourism in small towns like Winton?
5. What did researchers discover about the pterosaur bones found in Australia?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What happened next?
You are running through the playground at school. You tripped over something. It looked like a strange rock. You looked closer … could it be a dinosaur bone? Write the story of what happened next.

Use information in the story to help give you ideas.

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; History; Science

2. Extension
Do you know how palaeontologists analyse dinosaur bones? Use your research skills to find out how they identify the bones, work out how old bones are and make judgements about how the creature lived. Use the information that you have found to write a fact file on this question.

Time: allow 60 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; History; Science

VCOP ACTIVITY
BAB it!
Show you have read and understood the article by writing three sentences using the connectives “because’’, “and”, and “but” (BAB). Your sentences can share different facts or opinions, or the same ones but written about in different ways.