Australian Heritage Festival

Digging Dinosaurs, Arguing Archosaurs, and Amazing Opals

As part of the Australian Heritage Festival, I hosted multiple events discussing dinosaur fieldwork, careers and pathways into palaeontology and archaeology, the opalised fossils of Lightning Ridge, and which Australian Archosaur was best.

Speakers in these events included:

• Jake Kotevski, who researches Australia’s theropods – our meat-eating predators and raptors. Jake’s main field sites include the Cretaceous coastal sites of Victoria where we find ornithopods, turtles, and giant amphibians, and Lightning Ridge in NSW, where we find incredible opalised fossils and dinosaurs.

• Adele Pentland, Australia’s resident pterosaur expert (reminder: pterosaurs are not dinosaurs!). Adele will talk about her experience running digs in Winton, Qld, and discuss her time spent on fieldwork in Brazil.

• Jenni Brammall, Head of Collections, Programs and Research at the Australian Opal Centre in Lightning Ridge. Frequently at the forefront of new discoveries, Jenni works closely with both miners and scientists to uncover these national treasures and share them with the world.