A painting of a large amphibian poking its head out of water that is covered in petal
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Victoria's new state fossil emblem: Koolasuchus cleelandi

After 11,563 votes, the 125-million-year-old monster amphibian has been confirmed as Victoria’s fossil emblem.

Close up of a dinosaur claw
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Unboxing the museum: Deinocheirus claws

The racks and collections in the museum stores contain many objects and memories. This is Collection Manager at Museums Victoria, Tim Ziegler's personal story of just one.

A fearsome, two-legged dinosaur with strong, grasping arms.
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Who wielded the Otway Claw?

Meet Victoria’s top Cretaceous predator—a dinosaur that would have eaten Velociraptor for breakfast.

A young man holds a fossil.
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The puzzle of Melbourne’s small and ancient seals

‘Landmark’ study rewrites the history of seals in southern Australia thanks to fragmentary fossils washed up on a Melbourne beach. 

Illustration showing animals that lived from 635 million years–2.6 million years ago
Visit Melbourne Museum

600 Million Years: Victoria Evolves

How did life on Earth come to be the way it is and what happened in our part of the world?

Dinosaur skull cast
Visit Melbourne Museum

Dinosaur Walk

The Dinosaur Walk exhibition brings dinosaurs, pterosaurs and megafauna to life. Learn about the 17 skeletons of prehistoric animals on display!

whale preying on fish
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Discover Documentary: Prehistoric marine mammals

What creatures swam in Australia's oceans millions of years ago? In this episode of Discover, palaeontologists Dr Erich Fitzgerald and Tim Ziegler explain how they find and prepare the fossils which are revealing the secrets of Victoria's prehistoric marine mammals.

Conservation at Museums Victoria.
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Discover Documentary: Conservation

From wedding dresses to meteorites, our Conservation team protect and preserve over 15 million objects in Museums Victoria's collection. This episode of Discover takes a look at how they do it!

Finished reconstruction of extinct Australian megafauna, Palorchestes.
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Australia's megafauna

Australia’s megafauna were unique, and included giant marsupials, huge flightless birds and giant reptiles.

skull
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Small(er) is beautiful

Megafaunal giants…in miniature

Shark tooth and whale bone
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Whale vs shark

Evidence of shark bite 24 million years ago.

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Ancient whales had more bite than today’s gentle giants

The cutting edge of whale evolution.

A view of a whale at the surface from above
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Northern exposure: fossils of a southern whale found for the first time in the north

A totally unexpected discovery.

People wearing high vis working on a beach
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The 700

More than 700 individuals whose combined efforts, starting in 1984, have brought to light fossils in what has been dubbed by one of them “The Dinosaur Dreaming Project”.

Black and white image of a woman wearing a lab coat in a science lab
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Anne Bermingham, a scientific pioneer of radiocarbon dating

Meet the woman who started Australia’s first radiocarbon dating lab.

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The doyenne of dinosaur discovery

Melissa Lowery has a rare talent for finding dinosaurs.

dinosaur skeletons on display in a museum
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10 really big things in the Museums Victoria State Collection

With millions of objects to choose from, what are the some of the biggest things?

two slabs of stone, side by side, with orange streaks in the shape of a reedy plant
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The chance discovery of one of Victoria’s oldest fossil plants, 400 million years in the making

A series of unlikely events that led to the discovery of a 400-million-year-old fossil, shedding new light on the evolution of Australian plants. 

Close up of a dinosaur claw
Read

Unboxing the museum: Deinocheirus claws

The racks and collections in Museum stores contain many objects and memories this is Tim's personal story of just one.

a black and white photo of a woman wearing glasses and a white coat, looking into a microscope
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Isabel Cookson: one tough ‘Cookie’

One of Australia’s first professional female scientists, Isabel Cookson was a ground-breaking palaeobotanist.

A man and two boys looking up at a skeleton of a three-horned dinosaur fossil illuminated in blue and green light
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Know your bones: what is a ‘real’ fossil?

Fossils are the only means we have to study and display ancient animals, but what makes a fossil ‘real’?

an imprint of the three toed foot in rock, next to a ruler
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125-million-year-old footprints rewrite the history of birds in Australia

Ancient bird tracks found on Australia’s southeast coast, could be the oldest evidence for avian dinosaurs in the Southern Hemisphere.    

A fossil skull sitting on a rocky ledge
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We spent 2 years in deep underground caves to bring this extraordinary fossil to light

Finding and retrieving the bones of this extinct kangaroo relative – a ‘holy grail’ fossil – took hours of squeezing through narrow passages. 

A three toed footprint in rock
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New dinosaur footprints belong to the largest carnivores of Early Cretaceous southern Australia

24 new dinosaur footprints have been discovered on Australia's southern coast. 

Dinosaur claw specimen with handwritten registration number.
Museums Victoria Collections

The Cape Paterson Claw Theropoda

This claw - the first dinosaur bone found in Victoria - is commonly known as "the Cape Paterson Claw".

Extinct mammal incisor with scratches.
Museums Victoria Collections

Diprotodon tooth

A tooth fossil showing markings which appear to be man-made.

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