Three New Australian Dinosaurs Discovered

New Dinosaurs from Australian Outback Bigger than Velociraptor

Aug 26, 2009 Sue Cartledge

Three dinosaur skeletons discovered this year in Queensland, Australia, are completely new, bigger and more terrifying than Velociraptor, their discoverers claim.

The three huge dinosaurs, Australovenator (Banjo), Diamantinasaurus (Matilda) and Wintonotitan (Clancy) are the first dinosaurs to be named in Queensland in 28 years.

The fossils were discovered by palaeontologists from the Queensland Museum and the Australian Museum of Natural History: Scott Hocknull, Matt White, Travis Tischler, Alex Cook, Naomi Calleja, Trish Sloan, and David Elliott,

The dinosaurs were found in the Winton Formation in central and north Queensland, a large area of mudstones, shales, claystones, sandstones and carbon-rich shales approximately 98-95 million years old.

Australia's dinosaur fossil record is extremely poor relative to specimens recovered from similar-sized land-masses (e.g. North America, South America and Africa), the researchers said in the abstract of their paper, ‘New Mid-Cretaceous (Latest Albian) Dinosaurs from Winton, Queensland, Australia’ published on PLOS One.

“This poor record is in spite of extensive Mesozoic-aged sedimentary basins being available across the continent and dinosaur remains having been found in most of these; in particular those of Early Cretaceous age," they wrote.

The new discoveries of three completely new genera of dinosaurs offers hope of finding other new specimens of the same genera or even other new ones.

“A better understanding of the Australian dinosaurian record is crucial to understanding the global palaeobiogeography of dinosaurian groups, including groups previously considered to have had Gondwanan origins, such as the titanosaurs and carcharodontosaurids, “ they concluded.

Dinosaur Names Honour Australian Poet

The dinosaurs are named in honour of Australia’s much-loved bush poet, ‘Banjo’ Patterson and two of his characters. Banjo wrote ‘Waltzing Matilda’ – Australia’s unofficial national anthem – in Winton in 1885, and also authored the poem ‘Clancy of the Overflow’.

‘Waltzing Matilda’ describes the unfortunate end to a swagman who steals a jumbuck (sheep) but is chased by police and ends up leaping into and drowning in a billabong alongside his stolen sheep.

Strangely enough, the dinosaurs Banjo (Australovenator) and Matilda (Diamantinasaurus) were found buried together in what turns out to be a 98 million-year old billabong.

Two New Sauropods

Matilda (Diamantinasaurus) and Clancy (Wintonotitan) are the first new sauropods to be named in Australia in over 75 years, the most recent being Austrosaurus in 1933.

Matilda is estimated to be approximately 15 to 16 metres long, 2.5 metres high at the hip and weighed approximately 15 to 20 tonnes. It was a solid and robust animal, probably akin to a gigantic hippopotamus.

This plant-eating, four-legged sauropod is a new type of titanosaur. Titanosaurs were the largest animals ever to walk the earth. Matilda is the best preserved sauropod skeleton so far found in Australia.

Bigger Than Velociraptor and Scarier– Australovenator wintonensis

The third dinosaur was a fearsome specimen. Banjo (Australovenator wintonensis) was a carnivorous theropod, and is claimed as Australia's answer to Velociraptor for its speed, razor-sharp teeth and three large slashing claws on each hand.

It stood approximately 1.5 metres high at the hip, was 5 metres long, and weighed 500 kilograms, making Australovenator many times bigger than Velociraptor.

Unlike other theropods like T. rex which have small arms, Australovenator's arms were its primary weapon with the three large slashing claws on each hand. Estimated to have lived 100-98 million years ago in the Mid-Cretaceous, its is most closely related to the Japanese Fukiraptor and Neovenator from the Isle of Wight.

Australovenator Not a Dwarf

A fossil dinosaur ankle bone found in Victoria in the 1980s was classified as from a dwarf Allosaurus. However, the Queensland Museum team said that with the discovery of Australia's most complete carnivorous dinosaur skeleton, Australovenator, at Winton, the 1981bone could be shown to belong to the dinosaur lineage that led to Australovenator.

You might also be interested in Australian Dinosaur Research

The copyright of the article Three New Australian Dinosaurs Discovered in Paleontology is owned by Sue Cartledge. Permission to republish Three New Australian Dinosaurs Discovered in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Australovenator wintonensis, fiercer than Velocira

Wintonotitan wattsii (Clancy)

Diamantinasaurus matildae (Matilda)