Huge Titanosaurus in Australia Reveals New Species | soort Science

The giant named Australotitan cooperensis is a member of the family of titanosaurs that lived 100 million years ago. The animal was 5 to 6.5 high and 25 to 30 meters long. It is the largest dinosaur in Australia. Globally, this titanosaur is in the top five, estimates director Robyn Mackenzie of the Natural History Museum in Eromanga.

Fossil bones of the animal were found in 2006 at the Mackenzie family’s farm, about a thousand kilometers west of Brisbane. The dinosaur was named Cooper, after a river. The skeleton was shown to the public in 2007.

After lengthy and difficult research, including 3D scans, it was determined that it was a new dinosaur species. The results have been published in the scientific journal PeerJ.

Tip of the iceberg

Numerous other dinosaur bones have been found in the same area, but much digging remains to be done. “Discoveries like this are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Queensland Museum paleontologist Scott Hocknull.

The largest dinosaur known to date is the “Patagonian Titan,” discovered in Argentina and described in 2017. That herbivore weighed an estimated 70 tons, was about 37 meters long and 8 meters high.

–