Giant Dinosaur Fossils Emerge in Australia
Awe-inspiring in every respect, fossils of three new dinosaur species have recently been unearthed from the Australian outback. The finds effectively end Australia’s longtime drought in large fossil discoveries.
Two of the primordial monsters were massive herbivore sauropods, the other a meat-eating theropod that could reportedly surpass those in the Jurassic Park films. All were entombed 98 million years ago deep beneath a billabong near Winton, Queensland.
Paleontologists commissioned by the Queensland Museum and the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum found the enormous fossils. Led by Queensland Museum’s Scott Hocknull, the team dug three feet of stubborn topsoil and thick layers of sandy clay to get through the dinosaurs.
Of the finds, scientists marveled most at the lone carnivore, the Australovenator wintonensis. At 1,100 pounds, its fossils are the biggest ever for a flesh-eating dinosaur in Australia. The team nicknamed it Banjo in honor of Australian bush poet A.B. “Banjo” Paterson.
Banjo’s diggers define him as equal parts cheetah and monster. Like the former, Banjo was an agile predator. It was also a 16-foot long tower of doom that hunted Australia in the mid-Cretaceous epoch. Hocknull even likened it to the Jurassic Park velociraptors, but many times bigger. Banjo additionally had bigger forelimbs than an average Tyrannosaurus rex.
When diggers found Banjo, it was embracing one of the herbivores, suggesting a prehistoric lockdown. That herbivore is the 52-foot long Diamantinasaurus matildae, nicknamed Matilda after Paterson’s 1885 song.
Where Matilda evoked a hippo, the other herbivore resembled a giraffe. Wintonotitan wattsi, also known as Clancy, measures 52 feet and eats plants too. Both Clancy and Matilda come from the mighty titanosaur family, one of the largest creatures ever to roam on earth.
Their discovery was made public by science journal PLos One in a 51-page document. Hocknull’s group hopes to discover more fossils as he excavates other parts of Winton.
Hocknull’s finds elevate Australian paleontology alongside those of North America, Europe, South America, and Africa. Scientists believe Australia has untapped vestiges of prehistory beneath its largely geologically stable ground.