A grazier has found Australia鈥檚 largest dinosaur fossil while mustering his sheep near Winton, in Queensland鈥檚 鈥渇ossil triangle鈥�.
Palaeontologists from the Queensland Museum have just returned from the site. They say that the dinosaur they call 鈥淓lliot鈥� is a sauropod, but could be a new type, unique to Australia.
So far, the museum鈥檚 Steve Salisbury and his colleagues have found parts of the thighbone, ribs and backbone of the dinosaur, but they say there are more fossils to be found.
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Salisbury says: 鈥淭here are indications that Elliot is similar to previous finds, but we鈥檝e already noticed a few differences鈥�. Size is the most obvious.
Without the tail and neck bones, Salisbury cannot say exactly how big the beast was, but there are enough clues to say it stood about four metres high and was 16 to 21 metres in length.
Salisbury adds that the fossils vertebrae appear similar to existing sauropod finds in Australia and worldwide. 鈥淏ut portions of the femur have a slightly different shape,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 think we might be dealing with an endemic group of sauropods, rather than what鈥檚 found elsewhere in the world.鈥�
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Sauropods were huge, four-legged herbivores, characterised by their long necks and tails and a relatively small head. The brachiosaurus, diplodocus and apatosaurus were all members of the sauropod family.
鈥淭his is much more complete than other sauropods found in Australia,鈥� says Jenni Creagh from Australia鈥檚 National Dinosaur Museum. 鈥淢ost dinosaurs found are only fragments because scavengers get there before they become fossils.鈥�
Creagh says the region where Elliot was found is known as 鈥渢he fossil triangle鈥�, a huge area of Queensland rich in fossils. The rocks where Elliot was found, called the Winton formation, are reliably dated to the Cretaceous period, which means Elliot is 95 to 98 million years old.
Salisbury and his team will return to the Winton area in 2002 to complete a full-scale excavation of the land. 鈥淭here鈥檚 got to be more down there,鈥� he says.