Dr Phil Bell

UNE palaeontologist Dr Phil Bell fronted Prime TV cameras yesterday to explain to journalist Cassandra Briedis the implications of the $353,705 Australian Research Council (ARC) grant he won last week.

Dr Bell will use the funding to research dinosaur evolution in Australia in the hope of demonstrating that this landmass was not, as some suggest, an evolutionary dead-end for the former rulers of the earth. His project will use new analysis techniques to assess an under-utilised fossil resource from Lightning Ridge.

UNE researchers were directly awarded $2.6 million in this year’s Australian Research Council grants, and are collaborating in other ARC projects worth more than $3.2 million.