Titanosaurs Once Thundered Down Under

No, it’s not Littlefoot. Savannasaurus elliottorum was a medium-sized titanosaur that was found in a geological deposit approximately 95 million years old.

AsianScientist (Oct. 28, 2016) – The Australian Age of Dinosaurs (AAOD) Museum has announced the naming of Savannasaurus elliottorum, a new genus and species of dinosaur from western Queensland, Australia. The paper naming the new dinosaur was published in Scientific Reports.

Savannasaurus was a medium-sized titanosaur, approximately half the length of a basketball court, with a long neck and a relatively short tail. With hips at least one meter wide and a huge barrel-like ribcage, Savannasaurus is the most rotund sauropod the research team had found so far, said lead author Dr. Stephen Poropat, research associate at the AAOD Museum.

“It lived alongside at least two other types of sauropod as well as other dinosaurs including ornithopods, armored ankylosaurs, and the carnivorous theropod Australovenator,” Poropat said.

Savannasaurus was discovered by AAOD co-founder Mr. David Elliott in the Winton Formation, a geological deposit approximately 95 million years old. The site was excavated in September 2005 by a joint AAOD Museum and Queensland Museum team, and after almost ten years, the hard siltstone concretion around the bones was finally removed to reveal one of the most complete sauropod dinosaur skeletons ever found in Australia. More excitingly, it belonged to a completely new type of dinosaur.

The new discovery was nicknamed Wade in honor of prominent Australian palaeontologist Dr. Mary Wade, a close personal friend of Elliott and his wife.

In the same publication, Poropat and colleagues announced the first sauropod skull ever found in Australia. This skull, and the partial skeleton with which it was associated, has been assigned to Diamantinasaurus matildae, a sauropod dinosaur named in 2009 on the basis of its nickname Matilda.


The article can be found at: Poropat et al. (2016) New Australian Sauropods Shed Light on Cretaceous Dinosaur Palaeobiogeography.

———

Source: Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum; Photo: Travis R Tischler.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

Asian Scientist Magazine is an award-winning science and technology magazine that highlights R&D news stories from Asia to a global audience. The magazine is published by Singapore-headquartered Wildtype Media Group.

Related Stories from Asian Scientist