New Outback dinosaur a true heavyweight
Queensland Museum palaeontologist Dr Scott Hocknull said that made Australotitan the largest dinosaur discovered in Australia, and among the largest discovered worldwide.
‘‘The exciting thing for us is we can put our first hat in the ring for the world’s largest dinosaurs. It’s not the largest in the world, but it’s certainly top 10,’’ Hocknull said.
Determining the weight of species was difficult and methods differed. However, Hocknull said they were confident of a weight range between 50 tonnes and 70 tonnes, which would easily put it among the heaviest sauropods.
‘‘What’s interesting is it’s very different from the three other sauropod species which have been found around [Queensland town] Winton in the north,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s much bigger, it’s got wider hips, and it seems to be by itself. There are no other sauropod species in its area and timescale in the same way there are around Winton.’’
Australotitan lived in the late Cretaceous period between 92 million and 96 million years ago, when Australia was still part of mega-continent Gondwana, and the region around central Australia was an inland sea.
The dinosaur was named Australotitan to reflect its huge size, with the name meaning ‘‘southern titan’’.
The second part of its name, cooperensis, refers to Cooper Creek, the area near the town of Eromanga in western Queensland where the fossils were discovered in 2007.
In the nearly 14 years since, researchers from both the Queensland Museum and the Eromanga Natural History Museum have partnered with specialists to study the fossils, reconstruct the skeleton and compare the bones to others found in Australia and elsewhere.
Hocknull said they used stateof-the-art 3D modelling techniques to compare the bones, which due to their size and the fossilisation process turning them to stone meant they each weighed several hundred kilograms.
‘‘We digitally scan the bones so that I can carry around thousands of kilos of dinosaur bones in my seven-kilo laptop,’’ he said.
‘‘Using 3D scanning has revolutionised our field because once this research paper is out, researchers from across the globe can access those 3D models and compare all dinosaurs against one another.’’
The fossils were discovered by a joint team from both the Queensland Museum and local palaeontologists who went on to form the Eromanga Natural History Museum. – Nine