A dinosaur fossil discovered in Australia proved to be a new species that was undiscovered so far

It was confirmed that the fossil of the dinosaur unearthed in 2004 in Australia is of a new type which has not been found so far. This scientific name "Savannasaurus elliottorum" is about 14 meters from the head to the tip of the tail and has the feature that the butt is very wide.

New Australian sauropods shed light on Cretaceous dinosaur palaeobiogeography: Scientific Reports
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep34467

A new dinosaur species has been discovered in Australia - The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/20/13351870/new-dinosaur-species-savannasaurus-australia-discovery-titanosaur-sauropod

Savannasaurus elliottorum, which was confirmed to be a new species, is a dinosaur with a long neck and quadruped, thought to be a herbivore. Fossils were discovered in 2005, and as a result of ten years of research, it was confirmed that it was a new species that had not been discovered so far. This dinosaur and anotherTitanosaurusA paper on research results on fossils of the Ryukyu dinosaurs has been published in "Scientific Reports" of online scientific journals.


It was Mr. David Elliot who was a paleontologist and a coauthor of the paper who lives in Australia who found this fossil. If you look closely, you can also see that the scientific name of the dinosaur "Savannasaurus elliottorum" is decided based on Elliot's name. Mr. Elliot is also co-founder of the museum "Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History" where fossils of this new dinosaur will be stored.

Fossils were discovered in the Winton area of ​​Queensland located in the northeastern part of Australia and a number of fossils were discovered as Mr. Elliot found fossils that appeared on the surface of the cattle when they were looking after livestock It seems that it led to that. Even though the discovery of dinosaur fossils in Australia is very rare, this discovery is regarded as a valuable case, Mr. Matthew Lamanna, curator of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pennsylvania, USA "The Australian dinosaurs themselves are very valuable, and it is almost always possible to find only small fragments even if fossils are discovered."

Analyzing the skeleton, this dinosaur is considered to have a length of 14 meters and weighed about 18 tons. From the dental fossils, it has been revealed that this creature was a herbivore.


The discovery of these fossils has led to a debate over when and how the dinosaurs arrived at Australia. Savannasaurus elliottorum inhabited the present Australian continent,CretaceousIt is thought that it belonged to 95 million years ago from 98 million years ago belonging to 95% of the population, and some of the researchers believe that these dinosaurs came from Antarctica from the continental South American continent that was connected to the continent of Australia at that time.

According to Stephen Poropat, principal author of the paper, in the Cretaceous period the temperature in Antarctica was low and it was impossible for herbivorous animals to move. However, there is a mild period even in the Cretaceous period, which has been said to have lasted about 80 million years, and these dinosaurs are thought to have traveled to the continent of Australia through Antarctica when the temperature rose .


The discovery this time was a rare case that dinosaur fossils were found in Australia, but according to experts there is a possibility that a new type of fossil will be found in the future as well. Mr. Lamanna said, "There is a" lost era of dinosaurs "left in Australia that has not been discovered yet."