magnt's MEGADIG

 

email your question to the scientists what's it all about?
make your own exhibition

Discovernet

Dirk Megirian
Dirk Megirian works on some fossils in the main pit.

Dig Diary: Home | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

A team of scientists from the Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) work at Alcoota in the Australian desert for over a month every year to uncover exciting megafauna fossils. The Alcoota megafauna were large animals that lived in the Late Miocene period around 8 million years ago.

On this web site you can read all about what they've found and how they get these very delicate bones out of the ground. You can also explore the dig site and a real megafauna exhibition at the Museum of Central Australia in the What's it all About section.

The web-cast took place during July 2001. The team of scientists on site in Alcoota were set up with a satellite phone and a computer. Every day they wrote a 'Dig Diary' and answered questions sent via email from students across Australia - you can read these in the Megadig Mailbag.

In the Make Your Own Megafauna Exhibition section you can play our interactive game with real bones from the Museum of Central Australia to create a virtual display about megafauna.

In the mail bag...

 you can read questions sent to the scientists from kids all over Australia during the July 2001 web-cast.


AMOL logoMAGNT logo NT Department of Arts and Museums

This web cast is brought to you by the Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory and Australian Museums OnLine.
© 2001 Commonwealth of Australia on behalf of the Heritage Collections Council