Australia's Lost Kingdoms
Where did Australia's animals come from? In what ways are they unique? What are the forces that changed Australia and its animal life over the last 100 million years?
These are some of the questions that will be addressed in an exhibition at the Australian Museum. The exhibition is scheduled to run from mid 2000 to early 2001. It will then tour Australian and overseas museums and science centres. The exhibition floor space is approximately 600 m².
Over millions of years, geological and climatic changes have made Australia what it is today - the driest inhabited continent on Earth with a unique flora and fauna and an amazing history.
Visitors to this exhibition will be encouraged to take a journey of discovery from 100 million years ago to the present. The main story starts with the final breaking up of Gondwana, when Australia was separated from Antarctica and isolated for the next 30 million years. In this isolation evolved animals that are unique to Australia.
The exhibition will showcase fossils from all over Australia and in particular the World Heritage site at Riversleigh (from around 25 million years ago to the present). Riversleigh fossils are spectacular both for the volume and diversity found there. Many of the weird and wonderful animals from this site, such as the Thingodontans and the Wynyardiids, have no modern descendants while others gave rise to modern animals such as kangaroos, koalas and wombats.
Topics explored in the exhibition will include: what is a fossil; what can fossils tell us about the past; how do you know what an animal looked like from its fossil; can we find out about an animal's lifestyle from its fossil; what can fossils tell us about the processes of evolution and extinction; and what impact did the arrival of humans have on the animals and the environment?
A range of media will help to make this exhibition a very exciting experience, such as computer interactives; simulations of different time periods; animal stories; articulated skeletons; life size re-creations of extinct animals; a fossil dig and a palaeontology lab with helpful staff to field questions and help with identifications; film animations and games. If you are lucky you might get a fossil named after you.
Visitors to the Australian Museum's website will be able to explore the wonders of Australia's fossil past from the end of the dinosaurs to the rise of marsupials, find out about some of our palaeontologists and explore other palaeontology links on the web.
Australia's Lost Kingdoms website
Current tour dates for Australia's Lost Kingdoms
20th July 2001 to 14th October 2001
National Museum of Australia (Can)
15th December 2001 to 7th April 2002
Qld Museum (Bris)
May 2002 to February 2003
Newcastle Regional Museum
Australia's Lost Kingdoms tour has finished
Contact Details
Glenn Ferguson
Travelling Manager
Australian Museum
6 College Street, Sydney 2010
Phone: (+612) 9320 6212
Fax: (+612) 9320 6069
