Science – Titan of the Cretaceous period: identification of new types of dinosaurs – knowledge

SYDNEY (AP) – In Australia, paleontologists have confirmed the discovery of the country’s largest dinosaur species to date. Reaching 30 meters in length and six meters in height from the floor to the waist, this animal is a real giant of the Cretaceous period.

Bones of herbivores, which lived about 95 million years ago, were discovered 15 years ago in southwest Queensland. Now it got an official name: Australotitan coprensis. The scientists wrote about the long-term research on the skeleton in the journal PeerJ.

“The exciting thing for us is that we’ve now been able to throw our hats in the ring to identify the largest dinosaurs in the world,” Paleontologist Scott Hocknall of the Queensland Museum told the Sydney Morning Herald. www.sueddeutsche. de / know /. “It may not be the largest dinosaur in the world, but it is definitely among the top 10.” Previously, titanosaurs were found mainly in South America, and now Australia also belongs to this “elite group”, the media reported.

In order to illustrate the unimaginable dimensions of the giant, the newspaper used a comparison: The Australasian Cuperensis “has been as long as a basketball court and two stories high,” she said. When sauropods inhabited the land, today Australia still belonged to the great continent of Gondwana.

Paleontologist Robin McKenzie and her husband Stewart reportedly came across dinosaur bones while collecting livestock on their land in 2006. “We would never have imagined we were dealing with Australia’s largest animal and one of the largest,” ABC television quoted the McKenzie family as saying on Tuesday. animals of the world. They called the giant “Cooper” because they discovered it near the village of Copper Creek.

It took many years after that for all the bones to be excavated, assembled and identified by experts. Hocknall explained that among other things, the latest 3D models were created using the latest technology.

Experts from Down Under are now hoping for an even bigger sensation: In other parts of the world, where giant herbivorous dinosaurs have been found, theropods have also been discovered — giant carnivores on two legs. “There is a huge predatory dinosaur out there somewhere,” Hocknall said. “We just haven’t found it yet.”

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210608-99-904157 / 3