Opalised fossils and the evolution of Australia's dinosaurs

This project aims to study dinosaur evolution in Australia. Dinosaurs were one of Earth's most successful land vertebrates, but Australia’s perceived poor dinosaur fossil record has stymied significant advances in the field and promoted the view that it was an evolutionary dead-end. This project will challenge this perception by coupling an exceptional but under-valued fossil resource from Lightning Ridge, NSW, with new phylogenetic methodology and synchrotron analyses. The expected result is better understanding of the diversity, biology, and evolutionary relationships of Australian dinosaurs in the context of global dinosaur evolution.

This work establishes a new mid-Cretaceous (approx. 100 million years old) fossil locality from Lightning Ridge (NSW) as one of the most diverse dinosaur-bearing faunas in the Southern Hemisphere and a key to understanding dinosaur evolution in Australia. Results include the identification of new species (two dinosaurs and a crocodile), novel records of carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs, 'flying reptiles', and fossil crayfish, as well as unique insights into the behaviour and ecology of these animals. Importantly, renewed evidence for a strictly Gondwanan content and a precise geological age for fossil-bearing rocks at Lightning Ridge allows contextualisation of the newly-identified fauna with the rest of Australia and Gondwanaland.

Funder: Australian Research Council
Award Value: $353,705