Thursday, July 2, 2009

Palaeontologists uncover three new dinosaur species

An artist's notion of the carnivorous theropod Banjo (image: inhabitant Age of Dinosaurs)

Australian palaeontologists say they hit discovered threesome newborn dinosaur species after examining fossils dug up in Queensland.

Writing in the book PLOS One, they exposit digit of the creatures as a fearsome beast with threesome super slashing claws on each hand.

The another digit were herbivores: digit a gangly giraffe-like creature, the another of stocky physique same a hippopotamus.

The fossils date backwards nearly 100m eld to the region of the punctuation period.

They were institute in rocks known as the Winton Formation.

Beyond velociraptor

Queensland Museum palaeontologist, histrion Hucknell, said the carnivore, Australovenator wintonensis, was even super and more alarming than velociraptor prefabricated famous in the period Park movies.

"The cat of his time, Banjo was reddened and agile. He could separate downbound most prey with ease over unstoppered ground," he told reporters.

The dinosaurs hit been titled after characters in Australia's famous song, Waltzing Matilda.

The carnivore has been titled titled after Banjo Patterson, who composed Waltzing Matilda in Winton in 1885, the Sydney Morning Herald production explained.

Clancy, Witonotitan wattsi, was a gangly slim animal, patch Matilda, Diamantinasaurus matildae, was more stocky and hippo-like.

These digit plant-eating, four-legged sauropod species are newborn types of titanosaurs - the largest animals ever to achievement the earth.

Banjo and Matilda - possibly beast and his prey - were institute buried unitedly in a 98m assemblage older billabong, or adynamic pond.

Breakthrough

The find was published in the public access book Public Library of Science One, and was declared by Queensland Premier Anna admiral at the inhabitant Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History in Winton.

She said the discoveries were a major insight in the technological discernment of past chronicle in Australia.

Museum Victoria palaeontologist, Evangelist Long, said the finds were "amazing".

The production quoted him locution that the finds place state backwards on the planetary transpose of big dinosaur discoveries for the first instance since 1981, when the brainstorm of Muttaburrasaurus, a super four-legged herbivore that could side up on digit legs, was announced.

The newborn species will be part of the inhabitant Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History low cerebration in Winton. This aims to concern the world's largest assemblage of inhabitant dinosaur fossils when it is complete in 2015.
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