Dinosaurs used to rule these lands millions of years ago, but now they are no more and we have been discovering them ever since. A new species was recently brought to light, and it came all the way from Australia.
Not very surprising, considering all manner of things can be found in Australia. According to paleontologists who located the creature, it's a plant eater with a long neck, wide hip and four legs.
Since dinosaur fossils in Australia are rare, it could mean the creatures did not live there, and might have only passed through during certain seasons.
The chairman of Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, David Elliot, came across the fossils back in 2005. At the time, he was a sheep herder and was performing his trade when he stumbled across the bones. He and his wife, Judy Elliot, were not certain of what they came across, but after fitting two of the bones together, everything came to light.
The additional skeleton reveals that this dinosaur was an entirely new species, and it only fed on plants. Surprising, right? One would have expected a meat-eating dinosaur to be found in Australia instead.
Paleontologists decided to reveal the findings on Oct. 20, 2016, after 10 years of research. The team was led by Australian paleontologist Stephen Poropat. The team published the findings in the journal Scientific Reports.
The team named the dinosaur Savannasaurus elliottorum, which comes from the Elliot family name and the grassy region where the fossils were located.
At the moment, the team has no idea how dinosaurs spread to Australia. However, at the time, the country was connected to South America through Antarctica, so there lies a possible pathway. It's possible dinosaurs traveled to Australia during the warming periods.
The team also believes these creatures could have already been in Australia, but their bones did not last long enough to be found.
"It's been bandied about whether or not this is a bias in the fossil record," Poropat says in a statement reported by The Verge. "But given the thousands of fossils that have come out of these sediments, to not even have a single tooth of a sauropod, or a limb bone, or anything like that seems quite strange."
We all know that dinosaurs are large and have traveled thousands of miles across the planet. However, one big and important question that has eluded us for quite some time, is whether or not dinosaurs can sing.
