Palaeontology
The opalised skeleton of a small pliosaur (an extinct marine reptile) discoveredin the Cretaceous rocks of Coober Pedy, South Australia in 1987. Saved for the Australian Museum by a national fund-raising appeal in 1993 by ABC's "Quantum" and a generous donation from Akubra, Eric is now on display in the National Opal Collection in Pitt St. Mall, Sydney
Palaeontology is the study of fossils. Fossils are the remains or traces of prehistoric living things. Fossils are preserved in substances such as sediments, coal, tar, oil, amber or volcanic ash, or frozen in ice or naturally mummified.
Only a very small number of all the animals or plants that ever lived on the Earth are preserved as fossils. An even smaller number are found. Most have been destroyed by erosion or lie too deeply buried to be discovered.
However, fossils are found in quite large numbers, which indicates that an enormous number of plants and animals have lived on the Earth since life evolved more than 3500 million years ago.
The Australian Museum palaeontology collection contains some of the Museum's greatest treasures. One of the most spectacular is 'Eric' the opalised pliosaur from Coober Pedy. The collection also contains some of Australia's oldest mammal fossils, collected from the opal fields of Lightning Ridge in northern New South Wales.
Copyright © Australian Museum 2004