Dinosaurs of Darkness
March 25 - October 17, 2004

Dinosaurs of Darkness is presented by Monash Science Center, Melbourne, and the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston, Australia. The exhibition is sponsored by Qantas Airlines.

From Australia is Dinosaurs of Darkness, an exhibit featuring recently discovered dinosaurs that lived in the extreme polar regions of the globe - where darkness reigned in winter and temperatures plunged below freezing.

Learn about the unusual dinosaurs of Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, and South America. Curated by Dr. Patricia Vickers-Rich, Dinosaurs of Darkness includes five full skeletons, models, fossil bones, and paintings that tell the fascinating story of how dinosaurs lived in these cold, dark places. Created by the Monash Science Centre in Melbourne, Australia, Dinosaurs of Darkness is based on many exciting fossil discoveries made over the past two decades.

The exhibit presents cutting-edge paleontology in an accessible way. Dinosaurs from four continents (Australia & New Zealand, Antarctica, Alaska, and South America) are the highlights of the exhibit, including some full complete skeletons, models, skulls, eggs and nests, dinosaur mummies, teeth, and bones. Supplementing the specimens are a series of paintings showing the dinosaurs in their polar habitats, fleshed models of both a carnivore and herbivore, and photographs from “in the field.”

Very little was known about these creatures until the 1980s when scientists from the Monash Science Centre began a series of excavations in Alaska, southeast Australia, Antarctica, and other remote locales. About two hundred million years ago, these places were deep within the polar regions but they were warmer than today.

However, the dinosaurs inhabiting these areas endured harsher conditions than any other dinosaurs throughout the world, as well as many months of bleak darkness. Fossil skulls show that a few dinosaurs had large optic lobes that probably allowed them to see in very low light.

Dinosaurs of Darkness is the first touring exhibit on polar dinosaurs. It kicks off the Burke's "Year of the Fossil," a twelve-month program on paleontology and fossil education.