Origin Energy Fossil Gallery
Don't miss this fossil gallery, located within the South Australian Museum in Adelaide.
You'll see a stunning display of South Australia's opalised fossil treasures from the age of dinosaurs. The centrepiece is the extraordinary opalised Addyman plesiosaur - a 120 million year old marine reptile that swam in the cold inland seas of Australia during the age of the dinosaurs. An impressive life sized model of the Addyman plesiosaur is suspended from the ceiling above the opalised skeleton.
See the Ripples of Time, a fossil seafloor displayed as a wall preserving hundreds of tiny specimens of Dickinsonia. And examine the largest known fossil animal of its time, a doormat-sized specimen of Dickinsonia rex - truly the king of early marine animals, 550 million years old.
There's the world's oldest known fossil chordate, from the Ediacara biota of the Flinders Ranges, the tiny, 6 cm-long fossil is the body mould of the first known animal from the phylum to which vertebrates belong.
There's also the oldest known sponge and coral reefs, displayed as polished slabs are from the Flinders Ranges. And gaze at the giant image of Wilpena Pound at sunset, the most distinctive landform in South Australia preserving the oldest fossil animals within its layered rocks.
Read more on the South Australian Museum's fossil gallery web pages.
