Well-known Dinosaurs Found in Australia
Australia is famend for its distinctive wildlife like kangaroos and koalas. Nonetheless, Australia was additionally dwelling to some exceptional prehistoric creatures through the age of dinosaurs. Paleontologists have unearthed the fossils of many dinosaur species that after roamed what’s now Australian land. Listed here are among the most well-known dinosaurs present in Australia.
Australovenator (Australovenator wintonensis): This dinosaur was a big carnivorous theropod, much like the well-known Velociraptor. It lived through the early Cretaceous interval, roughly 95 million years in the past.
Muttaburrasaurus (Muttaburrasaurus langdoni): Muttaburrasaurus was a herbivorous dinosaur that lived through the early Cretaceous interval. It was a big, bipedal dinosaur with a particular crest on its head.
Diamantinasaurus (Diamantinasaurus matildae): Diamantinasaurus was a big, long-necked herbivorous dinosaur often called a sauropod. It lived through the mid-Cretaceous interval, round 95 million years in the past.
Leaellynasaura (Leaellynasaura amicagraphica): This dinosaur was a small, herbivorous dinosaur that lived through the early Cretaceous interval. It’s notable for its massive eyes, which counsel that it could have been lively through the polar evening.
Minmi (Minmi paravertebra): Minmi was an armored dinosaur often called an ankylosaur. It lived through the early Cretaceous interval and was characterised by its closely armored physique.
Cryolophosaurus: Informally often called “Elvisaurus,” after the only, ear-to-ear crest throughout its brow, Cryolophosaurus is the most important meat-eating dinosaur but recognized from Jurassic Antarctica (which isn’t saying a lot, because it was solely the second dinosaur ever to be found on the southern continent, after Antarctopelta). Perception into the life-style of this cold-crested lizard should await future fossil discoveries, although it’s a positive wager that its colourful crest was a sexually chosen attribute meant to draw females throughout mating season.
Austrosaurus: (“southern lizard”) is a sauropod dinosaur that lived within the Early Cretaceous interval of Australia. It may develop to 50-60 toes (15.24 meters) in size. Fossil finds counsel a top of roughly 3.9 meters on the hip and 4.1 meters on the shoulder, which might have given it an nearly stage again. In accordance with Gregory S. Paul, it was 20 meters lengthy and weighed about 16, 000 kg.
Ozraptor: The identify Ozraptor is just partially correct: Though this small dinosaur did reside in Australia, it wasn’t technically a raptor, just like the North American Deinonychus or the Asian Velociraptor, however a kind of theropod often called an abelisaur (after the South American Abelisaurus). Identified by solely a single tibia, Ozraptor is barely extra respectable within the paleontology neighborhood than the putative, nonetheless unnamed Australian tyrannosaur.
Australia’s prehistoric previous involves life via the invention of those exceptional dinosaur species. Continued paleontological excavation will certainly add many extra unfamiliar ‘horrible lizards’ to our understanding of life thousands and thousands of years in the past on this distinctive continent.