Did dinosaurs have belly buttons?
How did dinosaurs evolve?
What did they actually look like?
These are just a few of the questions set to be answered in Australia’s first ever university unit solely dedicated to the rise, fall and survival of dinosaurs.
Debuting online through the University of New England (UNE) in Trimester 2, 2022, Dinosaurs! has no pre-requisites and will provide dino die-hards from all disciplines with the perfect introduction into palaeontology.
Find out all about the unit and the wonderful minds behind it in this chat with Unit Coordinator, Dr Nicolas Campione, and Bachelor of GeoScience Course Coordinator, Dr Phil Bell.
What is Dinosaurs! all about?
Nic: GEOL210, Dinosaurs! is Australia’s first dinosaur unit. As the name suggests, it will focus on the wonderful world of the dinosaurs, but through them, we will explore Earth’s past, the evolution of life, and, of course, palaeontology.
Dinosaurs! is perfect for everyone; it’s an online, general interest unit, which should scratch anyone’s itch to know more about these fascinating creatures, past life on this planet, or simply looking to do something a bit different.
Phil: Dinosaurs are a great gateway drug to science! I love dinosaurs, and anyone who is interested in them, even casually, should get a kick out of this unit. But we're also using that hook for people to learn more about evolution and the way we study and interpret fossils more broadly.
Image: Dr Campione collecting Sauropod bones in Surat, Queensland.
What topic are you most excited to delve into?
Nic: Tough question. I am excited to teach about all of the topics in this unit, from studying fossils, revealing the diversity of dinosaurs, and exploring how some may have lived over 66 million years ago. If I had to pick, I guess I’d probably say that the evolution of dinosaur body size is an ongoing topic of fascination for me, although I’ve recently turned my attention to the origin of dinosaurs. Both topics will certainly be explored in Dinosaurs!
Phil: Thinking about these creatures as living, breathing animals, not just as dead things, is what excites me. There are a number of lectures on how we reconstruct their appearance and how we can infer some really wild things about how they behaved that I think are really fascinating. It seems like an impossible task to reconstruct these things that have been dead more than 65 million years, but spectacular fossils and new tools make it possible.
UNE is a leader in the palaeontology space, and our researchers have made some amazing discoveries (for example, when Dr Bell uncovered a new Australian dinosaur, dubbed 'Lightning Claw'). What is the most fascinating thing you’ve come across in your career so far?
Image: Illustration of 'Lightning Claw'. Credit Julius Csotonyi.
Nic: From a general perspective, I think the discovery that birds are dinosaurs is one of the greatest palaeontological findings of our time. I was far too young to be part of those initial discoveries, but as an evolutionary palaeobiologist, I’ve since carried out several research projects that explored the evolution of body size and the antiquity of feathers across the dinosaur to bird transition. In particular, we have come to realise that many features that we attribute specifically to birds today (e.g., feathers, flight, air-filled bones, generally small-body size) are much older than the origin of birds and occurred first in other dinosaurian groups; some of which are not even remotely closely related to birds.
Phil: I study dinosaur skin, which comes as a surprise to most people. They're generally amazed that skin fossilises in the first place, let alone there being enough of it to devote your entire career to! When you look at things that no one else is studying, you're likely to find a lot of new things. I've found dinosaurs with fleshy 'rooster combs', dinosaurs with sensory 'touch spots' on their scales, and even a dinosaur with a belly button. Now that's fun!
If you had to pick one, what would be your favourite dinosaur and why?
Nic: Another tough one. Dinosaurs are so varied in their form, so it’s a bit hard to choose. I have a soft spot for duckbilled dinosaurs, particularly the species Edmontosaurus regalis, on which I did substantial work in my earlier years. However, most of my research explores the broader evolution of dinosaurs, which means I look at many different dinosaur types, so I guess I don’t have a favourite. I think I love them all, even some fossil animals that are not dinosaurs.
Phil: I'm kind of like Nic with this. I think all dinosaurs are equal, but, if I had to choose, I'd say Saurolophus, which is another fairly innocuous duckbilled dinosaur. I did my PhD on that animal and spent some really great times in the field in Mongolia and Canada and in museums all around the world during that time. It's where I cut my teeth as a palaeontologist, and it was an all-round great experience. In fact, it's also how I came to meet Nic!
Image: Dr Bell (far left) and Dr Campione (second from left) doing fieldwork as part of the Boreal Alberta Dinosaur Project in western Canada.
If someone really enjoyed this unit, what could they do next?
Phil: UNE is really lucky to be leading the pack in terms of palaeontology in Australia. We are blessed with experts in all aspects of palaeo, not just dinosaurs. For example, we have experts in the dawn of life half a billion years ago, (Prof John Paterson and Dr Marissa Betts), as well as experts in a whole range of tools that help us understand the life and times of all of these wonderful beasts (Dr Luke Milan, Dr Tim Chapman and Prof Stephen Wroe). Because of that, there are some really fantastic opportunities to get involved in undergrad research (e.g., ERS381, SCI395) and of course post-grad research.
If you like Dinosaurs!, you should really consider the new Bachelor of GeoScience, palaeontology major. It's the only one of its kind in Australia, so it provides students with a really unique and specialised introduction to all things palaeontology.
You can find out more about Dinosaurs! and how to enrol here.
