Dinosaur bones discovered in Australia; may reveal how evolution process for sauropods occurred

Bones of an old dinosaur have been unearthed by palaeontologists in Australia from a site which was thought to be lost after 1932 until it was discovered again by a team in 2014. It was thought to be the lost site of a long-necked Austrosaurus, meaning “southern lizard”, mckillopi found in Australia’s outback.

The name was given to the cretaceous-era sauropod back in 1932, when it was discovered. The drive was spearheaded by Stephen Poropat from the Swinburne University of Technology. The find has the potential to “tell us a lot” about how the evolution process occurred for sauropod dinosaurs, Poropat told Xinhua news agency.

“What the dinosaur represents is one of the oldest sauropods dinosaurs from the cretaceous period. Anyway, in Australia, it is actually represented by several bones,” Poropat said.

“Basically, the bones we dug up in 2014, and 2015, belong to the exact same animal that was discovered in the 1930s. So together, those ribs and those vertebrae, not many bones, but enough to do something with them, that is the only specimen of Austrosaurus that has been found.”

Poropat said a detailed analysis of the find helped him to ascertain some “distinct characteristics” of Austrosaurus. He hopes that a more complete specimen to fully develop an idea of the Australian dinosaurs position on the family tree, despite the inherent challenges could now be found.

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