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posted by janrinok on Friday October 21 2016, @11:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the might-have-jogged dept.

Australian [paleontologists] have revealed two new dinosaurs, Savannasaurus elliottorum and Diamantinasaurus matildae.

As detailed in the Nature: Scientific Reports paper New Australian sauropods shed light on Cretaceous dinosaur palaeobiogeography , the dinos are remarkable because they are the first sauropods to be found in Australia.

Brontosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus and Apatosaurus are other members of the sauropod family, but are most-often associated with the late Jurassic period. Savannasaurus elliottorum shares the above-named beasties' height, long neck and thin hips: the creature was probably 12-15 metres long and about 1.5m across the beam. But it looks to have lived in the Cretaceous, about 105m years ago.

Both of the new dinos also appear to be more like South American dinosaurs than others found in Australia. That helps theories suggesting that as continents drifted and climate changed, dinosaurs went with the flow, through South America, across Antarctica and into the then-friendlier climes of central Australia where Savannasaurus elliottorum and Diamantinasaurus matildae kept the Sauropod race alive as a new breed of Titanosaurs


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @12:20AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @12:20AM (#417473)
    It's just a synonym for Apatosaurus.
  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Saturday October 22 2016, @12:28AM

    by bob_super (1357) on Saturday October 22 2016, @12:28AM (#417475)

    There's a new crater on Mars, but dinosaurs and stars share the trait that they're pretty dang old by the time we first observe them.

    /pedant-reply-to-pedant