Australia

Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, fossils, fossil found places, Charles Darwin on official and personalized stamps, postmarks and postal stationeries of Australia

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Contents:
Australia officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is an Oceanian country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Neighbouring countries include Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.
Australia is world famous for its natural wonders and wide open spaces, its beaches, deserts, "the bush", and "the Outback". Australia is one of the world's most highly urbanised countries; it is well known for the attractions of its large cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. [R1]

Australia is also world famous for its discovery of Dinosaur and Megafauna fossils, some of it are unique - found nowhere else and bears the names of Australian locations where their fossils were discovered. Muttaburrasaurus[R9] a dinosaur, was named after Muttaburra town [R8] in Queensland state of Australia.
Many of the prehistoric creatures who roamed the territory of modern Australia can be seen on Australian stamps.

Did you know ?
  • Decorated prepaid "Registered Post" envelops of Australian Post prepaid "Registered Post" envelops of Australian Post Registered letters can be sent in Australia in special prepaid “Registered Post” envelopes that include a unique tracking code. The price of the envelope already includes postage and registered tracking. Some covers are sold that have stamps on registered posts – these stamps are absolutely redundant and are only used for decoration (as in the above cover on the left). “Decorated” covers have no philatelic value – don’t waste your money on them! [R2]
  • Postmark for FDC of Wildlife of Ancient Australia stamps of Australia 2005 Postmark for FDC of Creatures of the Slimes stamps of Australia 2005 Postmark for FDC of Megafaunastamps of Australia 2008 According to Australian Post all postmarks designed for their FDC match the stamps topic.
    However, some postmarks have an abstract image, as the one for "Wildlife of Ancient Australia" stamps set from 1997 (see on the right).
    The graphic design line drawing could just be a representation of a rock "Impression" and not associated with any particular fossil type.
    In some other cases the postmarks are not pictorial, but just decorative text with the name of the issue as the postmarks for "Creatures of the Slimes" from 2005 and "Megafauna" from 2008 for example



Official stamps of Australia that related to Paleontology: dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals

01.10.1993 "Australia’s Dinosaur Era", mint and self-adhesive stamps [1]
Dinosaurs on stamps of Australia 1993 Dinosaurs on stamps of Australia 1993 Dinosaurs on self-adhesive stamps of Australia 1993
04.09.1997 "Wildlife of Ancient Australia" 21.04.2005 "Creatures of the Slimes", Mini-Sheet, strip and single stamps
Dinosaurs and prehistoric animals on stamps of Australia 1997 Creatures of the Slimes on stamps of Australia 2005 Creatures of the Slimes on stamps of Australia 2005
01.10.2008 "Megafauna", mint and self adhesive stamps
Prehistoric animals, mega fauna on stamps of Australia 2008 Prehistoric animals, mega fauna on stamps of Australia 2008 Prehistoric animals, mega fauna on self-adhesive stamps of Australia 2008
24.09.2013 "Australia’s Age of Dinosaurs" mint and self adhesive stamps
Dinosaurs on stamps of Australia 2013 Dinosaurs on stamps of Australia 2013 Dinosaurs on self-adhesive stamps of Australia 2013
17.08.2020 "Opalised fossils" mint & self-adhesive stamps
Opalised fossils on stamps of Australia 2020 Opalised fossils on mint Mini-Sheet of Australia 2020 Opalised fossils on self-adhesive stamps of Australia 2020

Notes:
[1] On October 10, 1993, only three month after release of "Jurassic Park" movie, three commonwealth countries: Australia, Canada and New Zealand issued dinosaur stamps.
Dinosaur stamps of Australia 1993 Dinosaur stamps of Canada 1993, Click for details Dinosaur stamps of New Zealand 1993
The Australian issue were issued in single sheets and mini-sheets of all 6 stamps. Two stamps from the set were also issued as self-adhesives in booklets and rolls. The mini-sheet was available with several overprints in gold and black colors – the overprints were for some stamp shows.
Many Australian stamps of Prehistoric animals including “Dinosaurs” (1993), “Creatures of the Slime” (2005), and “Megafauna” (2008) are based on drawings by famous Australian Paleoartist Peter Trusler.
Below are some videos where Peter Trusler talks about his work.
You might activate full screen option for more convenient view.



Personalized stamp: dinosaurs

13.02.2018 "Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary stamp pack" [SP1] xx.06.2018 "Jurassic World 2 Fallen Kingdom" [SP2]
Dinosaurs on stamps of Australia 2018 Dinosaurs on stamps of Australia 2018
Notes:
[SP1] Souvenir sheet with 10 stamps and some Dinosaurs on tabs in between. Issued by Australian Post to celebrate one of the biggest movie franchises in motion picture history with the Jurassic Park 25th anniversary! personalized dinosaur stamps of Australian post 2018

This film takes you to an amazing theme park on a remote island where dinosaurs once again roam the Earth and five people must battle to survive among the prehistoric predators.
Featuring visually stunning imagery and groundbreaking filmmaking, this epic film is sheer movie-making magic that was 65 million years in the making.
This film takes you on a breathtaking adventure you will want to experience again and again. Welcome to Jurassic Park.


[SP2] Jurassic world 2 Fallen Kingdom - personalized stamps of Australian post. Souvenir sheet with 20 stamps and some Dinosaurs on tabs in between.
The pack centres on the newly released Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. In this latest installment of this hugely popular movie franchise, four years have passed since the destruction of the Jurassic World theme park, and there’s a push to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from the island.
personalized dinosaur stamps of Australian post 2018 With all of the wonder, adventure and thrills synonymous with one of the most popular and successful franchises in cinema history, we see the return of favourite characters and dinosaurs – along with new breeds more awe-inspiring and terrifying than ever before. Welcome to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

It’s been four years since theme park and luxury resort Jurassic World was destroyed by dinosaurs out of containment.
Isla Nublar now sits abandoned by humans while the surviving dinosaurs fend for themselves in the jungles.
When the island’s dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event.
Owen is driven to find Blue, his lead raptor who’s still missing in the wild and Claire has gained respect for these creatures she now makes her mission to save. Arriving on the unstable island as lava begins raining down, their expedition uncovers a conspiracy that could return our entire planet to a perilous order not seen since prehistoric times.




Other stamps of Australia to consider: fossil-found place

04.03.1993 "Australian World Heritage Sites" [O1] 14.03.1996 "Australian World Heritage Sites" [O2] 05.04.2007 "Definitive stamps: Islands" [O3]
Fossil found places on stamps of Australia 1993 Fossil found places on stamps of Australia 1996 Fossil found places on stamps of Australia 2007
02.05.2017 "Caves" [O3] 12.06.2018 "The Art in Nature" [O1]
Fossil found places on stamps of Australia 2017 Fossil found places on stamps of Australia 1996

Notes:
[O1] Shark bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.
The bay's landscape appeared on two Australian stamps: the first time in 1993 (face value of 95c), then in 2017 (face value of $1).
Shark Bay, located about half way up Western Australia's west coast, stretches along 1,500 kilometres of coastline. It includes several islands, white sand beaches, red cliffs and tranquil turquoise lagoons and is home to remarkable biological diversity and marine life.

Shark Bay on stamp of Australia 1993 Precambrian fossil-found place Shark Bay on the Art of Nature stamps of Australia 2018 Stromatolite in Shark Bay
Shark Bay on stamp of Australia 1993 and 2018, MiNr. 1337 and 4813 Stromatolite Shark Bay
The image is from Wikipedia
Shark Bay is also one of the few places where scientists can study modern stromatolites – a bacterial-sediment structure.
Based on growth rate it is believed that about 1,000 years ago cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) began building up stromatolites in Hamelin Pool at the Hamelin Station reserve in the southern part of the bay. These structures are modern equivalents of the earliest signs of life on Earth, with fossilized stromatolites being found dating from 3.5 billion years ago at North Pole near Marble Bar, in Western Australia, and are considered the longest continuing biological lineage.
Stromatolites make-up the majority of fossils from the Precambrian.
They were first identified in 1956 at Hamelin Pool as a living species[dubious – discuss], before that only being known in the fossil record. Hamelin Pool contains the most diverse and abundant examples of living stromatolite forms in the world. Other occurrences are found at Lake Clifton near Mandurah and Lake Thetis near Cervantes. It is hypothesized that some stromatolites contain a new form of chlorophyll - chlorophyll f. [R10]

[O2] Three stamps of the set show important fossil-found places in Australia.
The Willandra Lakes Region is a World Heritage Site in the Far West region of New South Wales, Australia.
Willandra Lakes on stamp of Australia 1996
Willandra Lakes on stamp of Australia 1996, MiNr. 1537
Willandra contains some of the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens sapiens outside Africa. The evidence of occupation establishes that humans had dispersed as far as Australia by 42,000 years ago. Sites also illustrate human burials that are of great antiquity, such as a cremation dating to around 40,000 years BP, the oldest ritual cremation site in the world, and traces of complex plant-food gathering systems that date back 18,000 years BP associated with grindstones to produce flour from wild grass seeds, at much the same time as their use in the Middle East. Pigments were transported to these lakeshores before 42,000 years BP. Evidence from this region has allowed the typology of early Australian stone tools to be defined. [R3]

Fossil cave - Naracoorte Australian fossil mammal site.
Palaeontology is a familiar activity at the Naracoorte Caves World Heritage Area.
Fossil cave - Naracoorte on stamp of Australia 1996
Fossil cave - Naracoorte on stamp of Australia 1996, MiNr. 1538
The first published account of fossils from this site was in 1858 by Father Julian Tenison Woods. Following the discovery of Main Fossil Chamber, Victoria Fossil Cave in 1969, science was firmly established at the site. Paleontological research has led to the discovery of 23 fossil deposits in 13 of the Park’s 28 caves and over 60 scientific papers, 17 student theses, numerous book chapters, and other publications. [R4]

Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island on stamp of Australia 1996 Lord Howe Island on stamp of Australia 2007
Lord Howe Island on stamp of Australia 1996 and 2007, MiNr. 1539 and 2788
Rocks and land at the foot of these mountains is calcarenite, a coral sand, blown inland during the Pleistocene between 130,000 and 20,000 years ago and cemented into stratified layers by water percolation.

In this rock are fossils of bird bones and eggs, land and marine snails and the extinct endemic horned turtle (Meiolania platyceps) now thought to be an ancient relict non-swimming tortoise with relatives in South America. [R5]


[O3] This stamp issue presents four highly significant caves from around Australia. Each stamp provides us with a glimpse into these spectacular underground environments.
Fossil found place, Cliefden cave on stamp of Australia 2017
Cliefden Cave on stamp of Australia 2017, MiNr. 4625
One of the stamps shows Cliefden Cave.
The Cliefden Caves Geoheritage Site is multifaceted, containing internationally significant Ordovician fossil localities, limestone caves of national significance, a warm spring and tufa dams of state significance and the historically significant site where limestone was first discovered in inland Australia.
It has been ranked among the 70 most significant fossil sites in Australia by the Australian Heritage Council and as the thirteenth most significant limestone cave site in Australia by Davey.
The site was nominated to the Register of the National Estate by the Geological Society of Australia in the late 1970s and registered in 1987. [R11]


Postmarks of Australia that related to Paleontology: dinosaurs, Charles Darwin

Legend is here
01.08.1988- ? [DU] Hughenden - Dinosaur, celebrating 125 years of settlement" [Sp] [PM1] 01.10.1993 "Australia’s Dinosaur Era"- Official FDC postmark [FDC] [PM2] 01.10.1993 "Australia’s Dinosaur Era" [FDC] [PM2]
Allosaurus on commemorative postmark of Australia 1993 - Muttaburra Allosaurus on commemorative postmark of Australia 1993 - Muttaburra
01.10.1993 "Australia’s Dinosaur Era" [FDC]
Available in two sizes:
32x33mm and 33x35mm		 Available in two sizes:
27x29mm Sydney GPO and
33x35mm from Sydney Philatelic Bureau
Fossil of Trex like, theropod dinosaur on commemorative postmark of Australia 1993 - Brisbane - Jurassic Park Fossil of Trex like, theropod dinosaur on commemorative postmark of Australia 1993 - Melbourne - Jurassic Park Fossil of Trex like, theropod dinosaur on commemorative postmark of Australia 1993 - Sydney - Jurassic Park
01.10.1993 "Australia’s Dinosaur Era" [FDC] xx.xx.1999 "Charles Darwin" [PM]
Muttaburrasaurus dinosaur on commemorative postmark of Australia 1993 - Brisbane - Dinosaurs alive ! Fossil of Trex like, theropod dinosaur on commemorative postmark of Australia 1993 - Melbourne - Jurassic Park Charles Darwin on postmark of Australia
24.09.2013 "Australia’s Age of Dinosaurs" [FDC] 28.11.2014 "Muttaburrasaurus" [Sp] [PM2] xx.xx.2015 "Charles Darwin" [PM] [N]
Dinosaur on postamrk of Australia 2013 Muttaburrasaurus dinosaur on commemorative post mark of Australia 2014 Charles Darwin on postmark of Australia 2015
17.08.2020 "Opalised fossils" [FDC]
Opalised Fossils on postmark of Australia 2020

Notes:
[PM1] Hughenden is a town and locality in the Shire of Flinders, Queensland, Australia with population of about 1,1200 and situated on the banks of the Flinders River.
Muttaburrasaurus in Hughenden
The life size Muttaburrasaurus replica in Hughenden,
The image is from Wikipedia.
Muttaburrasaurus skeleton in the Queensland Museum
Muttaburrasaurus skeleton in the Queensland Museum,
The image is from Wikipedia.
Apart from agricultural business, Hughenden also boasts a life size, 7m, replica of the Muttaburrasaurus, a dinosaur, whose bones were discovered in 1963 near Muttaburra (220 km by road from Hughenden) and some teeth and other bones were also discovered around Hughenden.
The town is home to the Hughenden Dinosaur Festival, which attracts tourists and includes entertainment and other events.
Flinders Discovery Centre and Museum is also located in the town. The hundreds of fossils are superbly displayed in many individual glass cabinets. Well labelled, these fossils range from crustaceans in rock to ammonites ranging in size, colour and shape from around the world. Several different dinosaur bones, vertebrae and other exciting fossils are included in the collection. [R7]

[PM2] Muttaburra is a town and locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia with population of about 330 people.
Muttaburrasaurus, one of Australia's largest dinosaurs, was first found at Rosebury Downs station beside the Thompson river near the town of Muttaburra in 1963.
It was discovered by a local rancher, Mr. D.Langdon of Muttaburra.
The fossil remains had been scattered about by the feet of cattle for years and some of the locals had taken pieces home with them. Once the importance of the find was known the locals were asked to return the material they had collected as souvenirs, and most was recovered.
At its time it was the most complete dinosaur skeleton found in Australia.
The skeleton is on display in Queensland Museum (see right).
It roamed the Australian landscape about 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. It was a herbivore, eating such plants as ferns, cycads or conifers but many have also eaten some meat. It grew up to 7 metres long, was 2.2 metres tall at the hips and weighed up to 1-4 tonnes. Muttaburrasaurus could most likely walk on two or four legs and lived in herds that were a way of defending itself. [R8] [R9]


Some other postmarks of Australia: stylized prehistoric animals, stamp shows etc.

15.10.1993 "Sydney Stamp and Coin Show" [Sp] [PMO1] 23.10.1993 "Brisbane Stamp Show'93" [Sp] [PM2]
Stylized dinosaur on commemorative postmark of Australia 1993 - Sydney Muttaburrasaurus dinosaur on commemorative postmark of Australia 1993 - Brisbane

Notes:
Not postal mark of Stamps Shoe in Sydney [PMO1] There are some not postal, but souvenir marks designed by Australian Post for some stamp shows and used for overprint - placed on the margin of a Mini-Sheet (not on stamp).
Most of the times it shows the logo of the show with its name and dates.
In some special cases, pictorial marks with the show unrelated image produced. There are at least one of such non postal mark issued in 1993 that shows a dinosaur.
The overprint-mark with Triceratops dinosaur next to name and dates of Stamp and Coin show in Sydney. The mark is in golden color, but appears as a black when scanned
(click on the image on the right to see such a Mini-Sheet).



Postal stationery that related to Paleontology: prehistoric animals and their fossils, Charles Darwin

04.09.1980 "International museum day" [PS1] 15.01.1986 "150th anniversary of Charles Darwin' visit Australia"
Diprotodon fossil on imprinted stamps of Australian postal stationery 1980 Charles Darwin on imprinted stamps of Australian postal stationery 1986

Notes:
Diprotodon on stamp of Australia 2008
Diprotodon on stamp of Australia 2008, MiNr. 3103
[PS1] skeleton of Diprotodon, first discovered at Wellington Caves, depicted on the imprinted stamp of the cover.
Diprotodon, meaning "two forward teeth", is the largest known marsupial to have ever lived.
Along with many other members of a group of species collectively known as the "Australian megafauna", it existed from approximately 1.6 million years ago until extinction some 46,000 years ago. Reconstruction of the animal is depicted on Australian Megafauna stamp from 2008 (see right).
Diprotodon fossils have been found in sites across mainland Australia, including complete skulls and skeletons, as well as hair and foot impressions. Female skeletons have been found with babies located where the mother's pouch would have been. The largest specimens were hippopotamus-sized: about 3 metres from nose to tail, standing 2 metres tall at the shoulder and weighing about 2,790 kilograms. Aboriginal rock art images in Quinkan traditional country (Queensland, Australia) have been claimed to depict diprotodonts. They inhabited open forest, woodlands, and grasslands, possibly staying close to water, and eating leaves, shrubs, and some grasses. [R6]


Special covers that related to Paleontology: prehistoric animals and their fossils

Australian Opal Center [Cov1]
Cover of Australian Opal Center

Notes:
  [Cov1] The Australian Opal Centre (AOC) is an extraordinary national museum being developed in the outback opal mining town of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales to preserve, display and research the greatest ever public collection of Australian opal, opalised fossils, include some dinosaur bones and claws, and the colourful history and heritage of the Australian opal fields. [R12]
Three of four opalized fossils that shown on Australian stamps from 2020 are on display in the AOC.



References:


Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for the draft page review and his very valuable comments.


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