204 – Dinosaurs Amongst Us

A few weeks ago, Steve took his daughters for a Walk With The Dinosaurs down at Hallett Cove Conservation Park, led by Professor Flint, the singing paleontologist. It was a fascinating tour pointing out just how easily we might lave lost this vibrant window into the planet’s past, including direct evidence of glaciers clearly visible today. So, to sift through the layers of thought and misconceptions I’m sure I have about this topic, we have a chicken and Professor Flint.

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Professor Flint, why do we have a hot chicken before us when we’re here to talk about dinosaurs?

In one of your songs, you talk about a wishbone. How important is that?

Why is it important to learn about dinosaurs?

Which of our fauna icons has a dinosaur ancestor? Roos, Emus, Koalas?

There is so much guess work, how do paleotologists construct these models of what dinosaurs were like? Is it possible some might have been bright purple and really friendly?

Why is Hallett Cove so important?

What should we look for and is it the same principle everywhere, such as Morialta or in our backyards?

I met a woman recently who was one of the local protestors who stopped the destruction of the park.

We have to talk about your albums – Dinosaurs Down Under and Dinosaurs Amongst Us. Your songs are stuck in my head – anamolo, namalo, namolo, namolo, namolo, anamoloclaris (what is that), 1-2-3 the trilobites lived in the see, it’s a poop, it’s a poop, it’s a poop alright, it’s a prehistoric poop it’s a copralite. Where do the ideas come from?

I have a love/hate relationship with songs that are trying to educate (contemporary christian songs, songs about causes, and here we have songs about dinosaurs), they often come up making me nauseous. What is the challenge in songwriting when NOT writing about affairs of the heart?

These songs are aimed at kids but many would make great beer hall chanting songs. Are there many traditional melodies used?

Rhyming dinosaur names

I love the opening paragraph describing your show put on last year: Every great story has a hero. In “Professor Flint’s A Brief History of Life, the Universe, and Everything”, life itself — and it’s awesome ability to adapt and survive across billions of years — is the hero. Join us, on this delightful, paleontological, musical adventure and discover where you and your family fit in to this extraordinary story. Can LIFE be a character? Is LIFE or the yearing to survive the key to understanding the universe?

Janis: My kids love Professor Flint and his Dinosaur Stampede song. Question from Ms 10 – is Flinders University a good place to study if I want to become a paleontologist? Yes, she really is already checking out best uni to get there.

CARdinals_book club: Can/have fossils be found in suburban backyards?

Sam Arman (@Samosthenurus): Does Australovenator have floof?

Has anything discovered about dinosaurs, changed your day to day attitudes or habits?

Is there a link between Paleo Diets and paleontology?

Nigel challenges the panel to pick the fake story from three stories from South Australia’s past.

Observer July 1914
CURIOUS FOSSILS
While excavating trenches to lay the concrete pipes for the Waikerie township water supply, a fossilized eel or snake, of a length of about 4 ft;, was dis covered. It was imprisoned in limestone rock, and was revealed after a charge of dynamite had been shot. The body was almost intact, but the head was missing, so that it may have been either an eel or a snake. The fossil was found at a position more than 120 ft above river level, and shells and cockles land suchlike ore often, picked up at greater heights than this, plainly showing that the cliffs were at one time beneath the sea.

News October 1949
Dinosaurs’ remains in S.A. ‘likely’
No dinosaur fossils have been discovered in South Australia. However, they would probably be found in time, as rock formations in parts of SA were the same as those in Queens land, noted explorer and geologist Sir Douglas Mawson said today. He was commenting on the discovery last week in Queens land of the fossilised remains of a dinosaur. Dinosaurs existed 50 million years ago. The rock formations in which they were found were the same as those of the artesian basins. This meant that when found, they would probably be near Lake Eyre, said Sir Douglas Mawson.

Canberra Times November 1971
Dinosaur Bones turned to Opal
Adelaide, Monday. — An Andamooka prospector, Mr Jim Taylor, has unearthed part of an opalised dinosaur. The remains are thought to be about 120 million years old. The curator of fossils of the Adelaide Museum, Mr N. S. Pledge, who inspected the remains, said today that the calcium phosphate of the bone had been replaced by a silicon dioxide in hydrated form, which was opal. The museum hoped to make moulds of the fossils, which include three toe bones, a piece of vertebra, a piece of pelvic bone and several teeth.