Dad and I went to the fossil site at Riversleigh. These fossils are not of dinosaurs, like we saw at Winton, but of various animals from about 25 million years ago.
There were fossils of a prehistoric turtle’s shell:
And an extinct species of freshwater crocodile that grew to over 5m long:
But my favourite was Big Bird (also called a thunderbird) which used to be 2.5m tall. There was a fossilised leg bone and next to it lots of little stones. The bird used to eat the stones to help it grind its food. Chickens today do the same thing.
I was very good at finding fossils, even when there wasn’t a sign showing us where they were. All the fossils were in a rock called limestone which formed at the bottom of lakes and seas. The whole area used to be covered in rainforest, but now it looks like this:
Love the t-shirt Matthew! I just recently learnt that chickens eat stones to help them digest their food as well!
Very interesting story and photos Matthew. Uncle Winston and will never travel to where you are so we loved hearing and seeing about it from you ?
Great Matthew. I learnt a lot. You know so much about fossils. Thank you for sharing
Yay Matthew! My young friend at Kunyung school would love to be with you seeing all the fossils. He really enjoys seeing your pictures.