The new dinosaur species found in Australia is the largest one

C: https://www.sciencemag.org/

Scientists from Australia have recently classified a completely new dinosaur species. It is the largest one ever found on the continent. The Australotitan cooperensis or the Southern titan is among the 15 largest dinosaurs worldwide. Experts are saying that the titanosaur had a height of 6.5 and 30m long. The skeleton of it has been found in a frame in SouthWest Queensland.

Paleontologists have been working for more than a decade to identify the dinosaur. It has the attributes that distinguish it from the other known dinosaur species. They have compared the scans of its bones to the other kind of sauropods.

The sauropods used to be the plant-eating dinosaurs who have been popular for their sizes. They also had much smaller heads with long necks, long tails, and thicker legs.

These dinosaurs used to roam the continent during the Cretaceous Period, which is about 92-96 million years ago.

The researchers have given this dinosaur a nickname as Cooper. It was near Cooper Creek. The process of identifying is quite lengthy. The location was quite remote for the bones due to their size. Also, the condition is very delicate.

However, many of the remains are still intact. The team has also found that the Australian was much closer to the three other sauropod species- Savannasaurus, Diamantinasauras, and Wintonotitan.

Dr. Scott Hocknull says, “It looks like Australia’s largest dinosaurs were all part of one big happy family.”

The bones first came to light in 2007 on a family farm near Eromanga. Two of the dinosaur researchers, Stuart Mackenzie and Robyn own it.

Stuart Mackenzie said, “It’s amazing to think from the first bones discovered by our son, the first digs with the Queensland Museum, through to the development of a not-for-profit museum that runs annual dinosaur digs, all have helped us to get to this point, it’s a real privilege.”

The Queensland state government is welcoming this classification on Tuesday while calling it a boon for the local dinosaur discovery.

Credits: BBC

Ishita Paul