Hi all, at present I have a lovely young autistic lad in my life who I like to encourage. we get along great - he likes dinosaurs/fossils/mega fauna and so do I so we can talk like nobodies business. He is a great kid and I want to buy him a present - either a real fossil (which I suspect I will never afford) or a replica of something Diprotodon. Problem is at the moment is that my mental health is crap and I have some difficulty in finding what I want working through google. Would prefer to buy form australia but will take other chioces to. he is a good kid with struggles and totallly obsessesd with diprotodons atm so I want to do this nice thing for him. If anyone is able to point me in the right direction I would be really greatful.
cheerss
Just now, PBS is running a four-part Australian paleontology series:
including a page on Oz-ly megafauna:
The credits for each episode include museums where the artifacts are housed (also protected sites where they were dug up). American museums usually have gift shops, and they generally do mail-order. I’d guess Australian ones are pretty much the same. Something related to the exhibits would likely be available through them.
So you could try googling up a few such institutions from the credits lists.
Another source is rock shops. You can buy common fossils at remarkably modest prices, although they will mostly be whatever local rockhounds are chipping out of the nearby landscape. Your lad might be able to meet whomever found the fossil.
Hope this is enough in the way of leads.
thanks for that
Here’s a link to an Australian fossil digging kit, including a Diprotodon.