AustLit

Author's synopsis: 'Two tales interweave through this novel, set in the dinosaur triangle of western Queensland. We follow the fate of a small ornithopod trying to survive as a plant-eater in a land of carnivores, through its fight for life to its ultimate death in the claws of a terrifying flesh eating theropod. Twelve-year-old Ellie Honeywell regards herself as an amateur palaeontologist. She's more familiar with ancient fossils than teenage boys. When Tom Hart, the son of Museum palaeontologists, invites her to a fossil dig near Winton, she thinks her fossil-finding fantasies have come true. But why did Tom have to invite his friend Peta along as well? She's 14, gorgeous, sophisticated and totally unbearable. So a camping trip to the Lark Quarry Dinosaur Stampede is a welcome relief for Ellie. But three men illegally mining for valuable opal fossils are at work in the area and they're not about to let some camping kids jeopardise their plans to escape undetected with their treasure. If the two girls are to outwit and survive these ruthless criminals they need to become allies. In a dramatic conclusion Ellie's discovery of the fossilized femur of the small ornithopod neatly ties the two narratives together, producing a satisfying conclusion to this adventure-packed novel.'