Huge dinosaur find in Queensland
The biggest dinosaur fossil ever found in Australia was announced yesterday at the Queensland Museum.
Dubbed 'Elliott', the sauropod dinosaur was found near Winton in western Queensland.
Dr Steve Salisbury, honorary research fellow at the museum, said the fossil could represent the first evidence of a unique group of sauropods.
"Previously people have suggested that the Australian sauropods belonged to a group that are fairly much spread through most of Gondwana," he told ABC Radio's World Today.
"But there's a good chance with Elliott we could see the emergence of what could be a uniquely Australian group of sauropods."
Experts are hopeful that full excavation of the fossil will unearth Australia's most complete skeleton of a sauropod, one of the largest dinosaurs to roam the continent.
The bones originally taken from the site to the Queensland Museum were all exposed on the surface, and about five per cent of the skeleton has been excavated so far.
The distribution of the bones indicates that there are likely to be many more in the soil.
The exact location of the skeleton has been kept confidential to try to prevent vandalism or theft from the site.
The sauropod dinosaur was a long-necked plant-eater that grew up to 21 metres long. It existed 95 million years ago, when Australia was still part of Gondwanaland.
But while the sauropod is the biggest dinosaur on the continent represented by skeletal remains, Australia is also home to fossilised tracks from the largest known dinosaur in the world.
The tracks, in Broome, are of approximately the same age as the sauropod remains.
"These tracks are about one and half metres in diameter, so from that sense this discovery at Winton would be a kind of gecko," Dr Mike Archer, Director of the Australian Museum, told ABC Radio's World Today.
"We do know that although [the sauropod] is the biggest one that we've found so far in Australia, or anybody's found, there are bigger ones yet."
The team leader on the project is Dr Alex Cook, curator of Geology and Invertebrate Fossils at Queensland Museum. He is assisted by Mr Scott Hocknull and Dr Steve Salisbury.