New dinosaur species discovered in Australia

The  plant-eating  sauropod  lived  in   the   Cretaceous   period   between  92  million  and  96  million  years  ago  when  Australia  was  attached to Antarctica, according to a research  paper  published  on Monday.

Paleontologists  estimated  the  dinosaur reached a  height  of  5-6.5  metres  at  the  hip  and  25-30  metres  in  length,  making  it  as  long as a basketball court and as tall as a two storey building.

That  makes  the  new  species  the  largest  dinosaur  ever  found  in  Australia  and  puts  it  in  the  top five in the world, joining an elite  group  of  titanosaurs  previously only discovered in South America.

“Discoveries like this are just the   tip   of   the   iceberg,”   said Queensland Museum curator and  palaeontologist  Scott  Hocknull. Paleontologists have  named  the  sauropod  “Austral-otitan  cooperensis”,  combining  “southern  titan”  with  the  name  of a creek near where the first of the creature’s bones were found in 2006 on a cattle farming  property  in  Eromanga  in Queensland state.