The fossil of a seven metre long marine dinosaur has been put on display after a young girl made an incredible discovery in Richmond earlier this year.
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Seven-year-old Amber Wilson and her family were at the end of a 100-day tour of Australia when they decided to go for a dig at Kronosaurus Park.
Not long into the adventure, Amber came across a rare find: the skull of an ichthyosaur.
Dr Timothy Holland, the interpretation manager at the park, said the skull was 1.5 metres long, with teeth measuring 6cm in length.
"A professional paleontologist might search their entire career to find a fossil of this quality. It only took the Wilson family a few hours," he said.
It took a team of nine people to remove the skull from the ground as it weighed 400kg.
The dinosaur has been named "Wilson" after the family that made the discovery.
The Wilsons were up from Victoria visiting the sunshine state on a family holiday when the discovery was made.
"We were just going there to find a fish scale or a tooth. That was about as big as we thought it would get; it was just fantastic," Mr Wilson said.
Dr Holland said the skull was the most complete they had to date, and the best one in Australia.
"I have never seen tourists uncover such a beautifully preserved fossil before."
Young Amber was the one who made the discovery, and she said she planned to be a paleontologist one day.
Amber's mum, Lisa, told her she could choose anywhere to dig, and Amber picked a winner.
"After morning tea I said, 'right we're going to do this as a family, we're here as a family'," Lisa said.
"Amber wanted to be a paleontologist, which is the reason we were there, so we said she chooses the spot."
It didn't take long for the first discovery to be made.
Amber's dad lifted up a rock and before they knew it, they were uncovering the 7m skull.
"All four of us started digging. My husband lifted up a rock and out popped a vertebra of this animal we had found," Lisa said.
Before long, Amber's brother, Darcy, was helping her uncover an entire skull, which took nine people to lift.
There have been a number of other discoveries made my locals and tourists that shed light on what central Queensland may have looked like many years ago.
"Apparently there was an inland sea there 100 million years or so ago, and these things were swimming around in there and that's where their fossils are found," Lisa said.
She said discovering an animal like Wilson was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and definitely not something they ever dreamt of doing.
"We wanted to find a tiny little fossil. It's alive with fossils and you find little tiny fish scales and things like that, and we would've been pretty excited if we found one of those," she said.
"We never dreamt we would find the fossil of a large animal."
Lisa said the kids were taken out of school for a term to go on their family holiday, something she has no regrets in doing.
"You can't dig up a dinosaur in a classroom," she said.
"We would definitely do it again."
Kronosaurus Korner is located right in the middle of Richmond, between Townsville and Mt Isa.
It is open throughout the Christmas period, except on public holidays, so take the kids for a drive to see if they can make a similar discovery to the Wilsons.
