Tag: Australia
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Two giant gold nuggets worth $250,000 found in Australia
CNN has a story about the discovery of two giant gold nuggets. Collectively, the nuggets weigh about 7.7 lbs (3.5 kg) and are worth about $250,000. Gold diggers in southern Australia have found two huge nuggets worth $350,000 AUD ($250,000 USD) in historic goldfields. The pair of nuggets weigh in at a combined 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds)…
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New Dinosaur Unearthed in Australia
SciNews has an article about a new dinosaur discovery in Australia. This new dinosaur lived around 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. It’s a rare type of dinosaur that belongs to the group Elaphrosaurinae, which are odd ceratosaurians known from fossils from Africa, Asia, and Argentina. The fossils were discovered by Dinosaur Dreaming volunteer…
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NPR: Aussie Firefighters Save World’s Only Groves Of Prehistoric Wollemi Pines
NPR has a story about the state of the only natural groves of Wollemi Pines. Thought to be extinct the Wollemi Pines were “discovered” in the wilds of Australia back in 1994. It was a lifesaving mission as dramatic as any in the months-long battle against the wildfires that have torn through the Australian bush.…
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Man Keeps Rock For Years, Hoping It’s Gold. It Turned Out to Be Far More Valuable #meteorite
ScienceAlert has a post about a valuable find in Australia. It seems that David Hole found a rock he hoped would be gold. It wasn’t, but as it turns out it was more valuable than gold! In 2015, David Hole was prospecting in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, Australia. Armed with a metal detector, he…
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SciNews: Paleontologists Uncover Fossilized Remains of Baby Ornithopod Dinosaurs in Australia
SciNews has a story about the fossils of baby Ornithopod dinosaurs discovered in Australia. The animals are baby Weewarrasaurus pobeni dinosaurs, that lived about 100 million years ago during the middle Cretaceous period. Southeastern Australia, where these dinosaurs lived, was much closer to the South Pole at the time. These specimens reveal important insights into…
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Palaecast Episode 105: Ferrodraco
There’s a new episode of Palaeocast. This one is about the new Australian pterosaur, Ferrodraco lentoni, which was recently described in a paper that appeared in Scientific Reports. Discovered in the Winton area of central western Queensland, it had a wingspan of about 4 meters (13 feet). This animal lived about 96 million years ago,…
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First evidence of feathered polar dinosaurs found in Australia
Phys.org has a story about the first polar dinosaurs with feathers. Fossilized dinosaur and bird feathers have been found in what are fine muddy sediments in Australia. The deposit was once the bottom of a shallow lake that was close to the South Pole during the Cretaceous. The feathers date to about 118 million years…
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ScienceAlert: A Fossil of a Ginormous Flying Reptile Has Just Been Discovered in Australia
Science Alert has a story about a huge pterosaur discovery in Australia. Pterosaurs seem to be in the news lately and this one is called “Iron Dragon”, Ferrodraco lentoni. Discovered in the Winton area of central western Queensland, it had a wingspan of about 4 meters (13 feet). This animal lived about 96 million years…
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National Geographic: Gem-like fossils reveal stunning new dinosaur species
The National Geographic has a story about the discovery a new dinosaur in Australia. The animal, called Fostoria dhimbangunmal, lived about 150 million years ago. It’s an early member of a group that will eventually evolve into duck-billed hadrosaurs. The bones are opalized and was discovered near a town called Lightning Ridge, famous for brightly…
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Sparkly, opal-filled fossils reveal new dinosaur species
National Geographic has a story about an opalized dinosaur fossil discovered in Australia’s Lightning Ridge. The fossils were found from a mine near Wee Warra in New South Wales and belong to a newly named dinosaur species called Weewarrasaurus pobeni. The animal was a herbivore about the size of a Labrador retriever. It lived about…
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ABC: ‘Shale ale’ beer filtered through fossils the latest craze in Australia’s booming craft brewing industry
ABC in Australia has an intriguing story about the latest beer craze in Australia. Shale ale is from Kangaroo Island, which is famous for Cambrian Era fossil lagerstatten. Emu Bay is the famous fossil locality. The beer was created to celebrate the discoveries on the island. Kangaroo Island brewer Mike Holden is set to release…
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Rocks From Moon in Australia Contain Tranquillityite
Via Science: A mineral previously known only from moon rocks and lunar meteorites has now been found on Earth. Researchers discovered the substance—dubbed tranquillityite after the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Moon in July 1969— at six sites in Western Australia. The mineral occurs only in minuscule amounts and has…
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Continuing Dinosaur Discoveries in Australia
Via ABC News Australia: “Dinosaur bones around 97 million years old have been found in south-west Queensland…. …”The discoveries made this year confirm the site is likely to be of great significance, not only for Australia, but for a wider scientific understanding of the age of dinosaurs,” Mr Hocknull said. Other discoveries in the region…
