Dinosaur Dreaming

The questions: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

Ten questions (5):
Is research of this type of value to Australia? Is it valuable to the world? Why?

Tom Rich: At the time this mammal jaw was part of a living animal, of all the organisms then alive of which we have evidence, it is as close to our own ancestors as any we know. Understanding our origins as well as that of the entire biota is something that moves the human spirit.

Pat Vickers-Rich: Curiosity and pursuing questions that help people understand anything about their surroundings and history is the most precious thing the human race has.

Lesley Kool: Most people have a natural curiosity about what kinds of animals lived in the past. I think it is not only important to find out what lived in the past, but how they lived, and interacted with each other and the environment. The Early Cretaceous is not well documented in the fossil record. At Inverloch, we have an opportunity to study a group of animals that lived at this time in a unique environment. Nowhere in Australia is there a site where such a diverse fauna of this age can be found. The information gained from this site is of world significance. Dinosaur Dreaming is one of a handful of polar sites which allow palaeontologists to study how animals adapted to regular periods of darkness and low temperatures. The site is particularly significant in that it has empirical evidence of temperatures dropping below freezing.

Nicola Barton: Yes, because it helps to explain how Australia became the way it is today. That in itself is interesting. In addition in finding out about the species types and the environments of the past, how they evolved and/or became extinct we can draw parallels with the current changes that are occuring in Australia and elsewhere in the world today and consider how it will affect the future.

Nick van Klaveren: A person is limited in their knowledge of the world by their memories. The development of writing allowed human memory back thousands of years. Archaeology and palaeontology therefore extends it even further back. This knowledge may be useful in subtle ways, like the present greenhouse effect for example.

Nicole Evered: YES and YES - there is so much we don't know.