Scientists have identified a new dinosaur in south-eastern Australia.
It’s thought that the Galleonosaurus dorisae was alive 125 million years ago and would have been roughly the same height as a wallaby, BBC reports.
It was given its name because its jaw resembles an upturned galleon ship. Based on its teeth, Galleonsaurus would have been a herbivore and belonged to the ornithopod family.
Galleonosaurus dorisae is just the second dinosaur of its type to be identified from the 125 million-year-old rock platforms south-east of Melbourne — and the fifth from along the Victorian coastline.
Millions of years ago, this area was a lushly forested rift valley with a 4,000-km chain of volcanoes to the east, said palaeontologist Matthew Herne of the University of New England.
“It’s a lost world. None of this is now available or evident except for fossils, and the only place we can actually access these fossils is along the southern coast of Victoria,” Dr Herne said.
Dr Herne and colleagues have spent the past 10 years carefully analysing fossils collected from the Flat Rocks area near Inverloch by other palaeontologists and volunteers from the Dinosaur Dreaming team.
Via BBC and ABC News
Photo ABC News
