A new species of dinosaur, Australotitan Cooperensis discovered in the year 2007 is considered as the largest ever found on the continent.
Eromanga Natural History Museum
Largest Dinosaur: A new species of dinosaur, Australotitan Cooperensis discovered in the year 2007 on a farm in South-west Queensland is recognised as the gigantic ever found on the continent, Australia, said scientists.
The southern titan which is among the 15 largest dinosaurs found across the world is 6.5m (21ft) tall and 30m long, experts said.
Palaeontologists spent over the past decade identifying the dinosaur and distinguish it from other species by comparing the scans of its bones to other sauropods.
They found out that Australotitan Cooperensis’ features are more similar to the three sauropods, a plant eating dinosaurs who had small heads, very long necks, long tails and thick pillar-like legs.
The three other sauropod species – the Wintonotitan, Diamantinasaurus and Savannasaur. Palaeontologists believed that it might possible that the four species evolved from each other, palaeontologist said.
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These saurapods roamed the Continent during the Cretaceous Period (92-96 million years ago).
Palaeontologists nicknamed Cooper after it was first uncovered near Cooper Creek in the Eromanga Basin in 2007, a family farm of two dinosaur researchers, Robyn and Stuart Mackenzie.
They also uncovered dinosaur’s shoulder blades, limb, and pelvic bones, many of them largely intact, said Robyn Mackenzie, a field palaeontologist.
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However, the identification of bones is still going on as it is a lengthy process due to their remote location, their size and delicate condition. But many of the remains were found intact, said researchers from the Queensland Museum and Eromanga Natural History Museum.
After the discovery, Mackenzie co-founded the Eromanga Natural History Museum with her husband, Stuart.
Apart from this, a second Australotitan specimen has also been discovered at Eromanga. George is the nickname of the species. It is significantly bigger than Cooper. The length of its femur was 2.2m, on the other hand, Cooper’s at 1.9m. However, George’s bones were more fragmented, which make the study even more difficult.
Stating it one of the victories for local dinosaur discovery, the Queensland state government welcomed the classification on Tuesday.
