A unique story millions of years in the making

THIS story spans millions of years. It starts with a prehistoric creature of enormous proportions, with sharp teeth and a powerful jaw. It continues with a globe-trotter from Europe unearthing just a mention of a rare fossil in an old academic paper. And it culminates right here in Chinchilla.

Palaeontology PhD student Jorgo Ristevski took the dusty trip to town earlier this month to catch a glimpse of a unique fossil held at the Chinchilla Museum.

The specimen is from a 'crocodylian' of the genus Pallimnarchus - a giant, crocodile-like reptile from the Cenozoic era of Australia's ancient history.

Mr Ristevski said the Pallimnarchus was unique to the continent and surrounding areas including New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Fiji. But not much is known about the mysterious creature.

"Until now we have bits and pieces such as partial part of the jaw, the lower jaw, but many, many questions remain in regards to it's anatomy, and where it fits exactly, and the evolutionary relationships between crocodylians,” Mr Ristevski said.

"This specimen was just briefly mentioned over 20 years ago in a published paper, but it hasn't been described, it hasn't been pictured, but from the very brief description in that paper it piqued my interest.”

The description mentioned pieces of the skull Mr Ristevski said academics were generally unaware of, and so he decided to contact the Chinchilla Museum and organise a visit to study the fossil.

"My job here is to examine this specimen, try to extract as much detail as I can from what is preserved from this animal, and hopefully increase our knowledge on this extinct species,” he said.

It's all part of his PhD, which he's completing through the University of Queensland in Brisbane.

The trip was the farthest west into Australia Mr Ristevski had ever come after arriving about eight months ago.

"I've just started examining this specimen. It looks very interesting but I can't share any detail at the moment because I'm still gathering the data,” he said.

"Stay tuned for a potential paper on it!”

It's a pretty special moment for the Chinchilla Museum, as a small regional institution housing an important piece of Australia's prehistory.

Museum committee member Joan Hubbard said the fossil was found locally before being stored in Brisbane and later returned to Chinchilla.

"It's a real honour for the Chinchilla Museum to have a scientist doing some research in our local little museum,” she said.