Early Cretaceous polar biotas of Victoria, southeastern Australiaan overview of research to date

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Funding Acknowledgements

This paper is dedicated to the late David Pickering who, as Collection Manager at Museums Victoria, excavated, prepared and studied Victorian Cretaceous fossils for many years. The authors would like to thank all of those involved in the Koonwarra, Dinosaur Cove and Dinosaur Dreaming projects: Koonwarra excavation leaders Jim Bowler, Jack Douglas, John Talent, Jim Warren, Mike Waldman and Andrew Drinnan; Koonwarra collectors Leon Costermans, Peter Duncan, Peter Handby, James McQueen and Fons VandenBerg; Rob Glenie, who reinvigorated the search for Cretaceous tetrapods on the Victorian coast; John Long and Tim Flannery for discovering the fossils that led to more intense prospecting along the Victorian coast; tireless Victorian coastal prospectors Mike Cleeland, Andrew Constantine, Lesley Kool, Andrew Ruffin and Nick van Klaveren; Dinosaur Cove and Dinosaur Dreaming dig leaders Lesley Kool and David Pickering; Dinosaur Dreaming dig co-ordinators Marion Anderson, Katch Bacheller, Anne Leorke, Doris Seegets-Villiers, Alan Tait, Nick van Klaveren, Wendy White and Corrie Williams; long-serving dig volunteers Gerrit Kool, Mike and Pip Cleeland, Mary Walters, Nicole and Alan Evered, Norman Gardiner, John Wilkins, Peggy Cole, Darren Bellingham, Astrid Werner, Caroline Ennis, John Swinkels, Rohan Long, Cindy Hann, Alanna Maguire, Dean Wright, Danielle Shean, Nicola Sanderson, Roger Close, Kim Douglas, Mike Greenwood, Lisa Nink and Jacqui Tumney; long-serving specimen preparators Paul Chedgey, Lesley Kool, Geoff Lawson, David Pickering and Alan Tait; and all others who have participated in the Victorian Cretaceous adventure to date. Were it not for their efforts, it would not have been worth our while to write this paper. In addition, we are grateful to the National Geographic Society and private donors for funding, Atlas Copco for equipment, Bimbi Park and Cape Otway Lighthouse for accommodation, Sue Hadden and her team at Parks Victoria for their advice and understanding in the issue of research permits over the years and to the local rangers in the Otways and Gippsland Coast for their interest and help in collecting and samples and keeping an eye on our sites and fossil finds, VicRoads for their assistance in access to sites along the South Gippsland Highway and for the drilling scheme to help understand the Koonwarra lake deposits, Sally Rogers-Davidson and Draga Gelt for assistance with graphics over the years, Joy Evans and the Denny Family for their assistance with the Otway digs, Monash University, and Museums Victoria. We would also like to warmly thank Rolf Schmidt and Tim Ziegler of Museums Victoria for facilitating access to specimens in their care; Steve Morton, Francesco Coffa, Frank Holmes, Jon Augier and Shane Ahyong for the use of their photographs in this work; Peter Trusler for the use of his stunning reconstructions; Ian Duddy for his comments on the geological setting section; and all those who assisted in providing access to literature including Bill Birch, Lydia Heap, Chris Mays, Andre Nel, Martin Norvick, Alan Partridge, Emiliana Sferco, Greg Smith, Jennifer Totterdell, Brittany Turner and Fons VandenBerg. Finally, the authors would like to thank Cai Chenyang, John Long and Phil Bell for their helpful and constructive reviews of the manuscript, and to Stephen McLoughlin for his editorial critique, which greatly enhanced this work. SKM publishes with the permission of the Geological Survey of Western Australia.