William Atkins
Monday, 31 August 2009 18:49
Science -
Biology
Page 1 of 2
Australian palaeontologists discover a new species of dinosaur in Queensland, and nickname the 97 million year old sauropod "Zac."
The discovery was made near the town of Eromanga, in the southwestern part of Queensland (west of Charleville), by a team of volunteers and palaeontologists from the Queensland Museum.
The team was examining a sheep and cattle station at the time of discovery. It wasn’t a difficult find for the scientists, as many of the bones of Zac were already sticking out of the ground.
Still, it is estimated that hundreds of other bones from Zac remain hidden under the ground.
The dinosaur is from the Early Cretaceous period (about 142 to 100 million years ago). Other dinosaur discoveries have been also at nearby locations in Australia.
Queensland Museum palaeontologist Scott Hocknull, one of the discoverers, stated,
"We have got dinosaurs coming out of all parts of Queensland, and so Australia is really becoming this centre for dinosaur discovery." [BBC News (August 27, 2009): “
Australia discovers new dinosaur”]
Besides, Zac, dinosaurs recently discovered in Australia have included Cooper (a new species of titanosaur, discovered in 2004), along with Matilda, Clancy, and Banjo, all discovered earlier in 2009.
Zac, like other sauropods, had a small head, a lengthy neck (sometimes half the length of the entire body), blunt teeth, and a long tail.
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