Nieu Bethesda. – Fossil much?
Because I can’t resist anything that tells me creatures great and rather impressive once roamed the land I walk on, visiting the Kitching Fossil Exploration Centre was a must.
Depicting the Permian Period of about 250 million years ago, that’s 50 million years before the age of dinosaurs, when the continents were merged in the supercontinent Pangea. The centre showcases fossils found in Nieu Bethesda and other places in the country.
I absolutely love the life-size models of the Gorgonopsian, fondly referred to as Gorgons, and think that I could have been friends with these mammal ancestors of ours.
Our guide took us down to the river bed and with a bottle of water to highlight our finds, we searched out fossils. Hugely exciting to see vertebrae and jaw bones protruding from the rocks. All embedded in an upside down position given that they would have drowned and floated down that way. Sad, yet invaluable for research that their remains are here to help us unravel and understand more of the past.
The museum holds a guide – ten easy steps to becoming a fossil. Which I much appreciated. Hoping to hike further up the river on my return, and like a diamond prospector searching out fortune, I hold on to the hope that I may just be the one to uncover the area’s next fossil treasure.
