AUSTRALIA鈥橲 long dinosaur drought is finally over with the discovery of two massive plant-eating titanosaurs and the continent鈥檚 most complete predatory dinosaur. Apart from a dozen or so fragmentary skeletons and bones, the continent previously appeared to have been a virtual terra incognita during the 150-million-year reign of the dinosaurs.
Australovenator, the newly discovered predator, was 5 metres long and 2 metres high at the hip, fast like a velociraptor, but bigger, with three slashing claws on each arm.
It was found in the remains of a 98-million-year old-billabong in central Queensland, and the two titanosaurs came from the same deposits. Both stretched 16 to 18 metres long, but Wintonotitan was built lightly like a giraffe, while Diamantinasaurus was elephant-like and massive (PLoS-ONE, ).
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Scott Hocknull and his colleagues at the Queensland Museum, who cracked the excavation problem with expensive machines and dogged persistence, say more fossils are on the way. 鈥淓very fossil that is found is new to science,鈥� Hocknull says.