http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=172&catid=177&id=439&view=article
Rare Chance to Give Megafauna a Makeover
16 October 2012
The South Australian Museum will give 20 volunteers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to prepare fossils of the largest extinct marsupial known in Australia.
Scientists will clean and conserve bones unearthed at Collinsville Station in the Burra region, just over 150 kilometres north of Adelaide, for a refurbished Megafauna Gallery at the Museum. The intention is to give locals (people within the Goyder Council District of South Australia) a hands-on experience of preparing ancient fossils with the expertise of our Palaeontology team.
South Australian Museum Assistant Collections Manager of Palaeontology, Mary-Anne Binnie, is organising the workshop. She says it will offer an opportunity to people with no scientific background, but who are passionate about science and fossils, to engage in a project of global significance.
“The workshop will allow people to work with the scientists and see what’s involved behind the scenes in finding bones and ultimately preparing them for display and research at the Museum,” she says.
The first of the bones were discovered on Collinsville Station in May 2011 by the Cousins family of Burra, who brought them in to the South Australian Museum for identification. “We didn’t know how significant the site was until we actually went out there and thought, this is quite a major find,” says Ms Binnie. “We believe there may be fairly well preserved partial skeletons of two adults at that dig site.”
The Diprotodon optatum– an animal resembling a giant wombat – is thought to have died out between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago.
According to South Australian Museum Honorary, Professor Rod Wells, the first fossilised remains of the giant marsupials were discovered at a dam site at Bundey and along Baldina Creek, near Burra, in 1889. Today there are seven fossil-yielding sites in the region east of Burra known. Those include the Diprotodon, as well as the ‘giant emu’ Genyornis, the marsupial lion Thylacoleo and the Tasmanian Devil.
The ‘Megafauna Makeover’ workshop will be a one-day dig and bone-preparation session on Sunday 28 October from 10.30am to 4.30pm at the Collinsville Site. It is open to all ages over eight years.
The volunteers will need patience, persistence and passion as they carry out the slow process of cleaning and hardening the fossils.
Residents in the Goyder Council District who are interested in participating in the program can find details published in the Mid North Broadcaster newspaper this week.
For information or to arrange interviews and images, contact Publicist Alex Parry:
P: 08 8207 7385 M: 0422 722 093 E: Alex.Parry@samuseum.sa.gov.au