Victoria’s Rich Heritage of Polar Dinosaurs

Explore nearly 50 years of research into Dinsoaurs!

During the Early Cretaceous, Victoria, Australia, was positioned within the Antarctic Circle, and a variety of tetrapods, including dinosaurs, thrived in this polar environment. Fossil discoveries, like the 24 dinosaur tracks on the Bass Coast, reveal that large theropod dinosaurs and ornithopods roamed the river floodplains, particularly during the warmer summers.

Thanks to the efforts of more than 700 volunteers mainly in the Otways and along the Bass Coast, Museums Victoria has acquired a modest collection of Early Cretaceous polar tetrapods. It includes about a dozen dinosaurs, two or three different turtles, six mammals and pterosaurs, plesiosaurs and amphibians.

Join Professor Pat Vickers-Rich (Monash University) and Dr Tom Rich (Melbourne Museum) as they walk you through years of research.

Professor Pat Vickers-Rich from Monash University is an expert in the origin and evolution of Australasian vertebrates and their environments over the past 400 million years. Dr Tom Rich is Senior Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology at Museums Victoria.

‍

This event is the Geographical Society of Australia's 2025 Howitt Lecture and is jointly hosted with the RSV.

(Image from Anthony Martin)

‍