I think there's a reason why humans waited before descended from the trees; nasty carnivorous dinosaurs for one. Pictured is 'Banjo'. Australoventar (though I doubt it showed much love to anything other than a mate) is six metres long and two metres at the hip with clawed hands. All the better for rending flesh...Banjo was found with two titanosaurs sauropods - Clancy and Matilda - in an ancient billabong in outback Queensland, near Winton. The names come from renowned Australian author, Banjo Patterson, who is rumoured to have written Waltzing Matilda in Winton. Clancy and Matilda are the first, giant, long-necked dinosaurs to be discovered in Australia and all three are the first found new dinosaurs since the Muttaburrasaurus way back in 1963.
The new species, Australoventar, Wintonotitan and Dimatinasaurus will go on display at the new Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History in Winton.
Australovenator is Australia's first big predator and Banjo was found with Matilda. Did Banjo try to take down Matilda? Or did the mud drag them both to their doom?
To give you a comparison in size, Deinonychus, the largest known of the velociraptor family was 3.4 metres in length and less than a metre in height. I think Banjo would have had Dienonychus for lunch, then used the sickle-claw as a tooth pick.
According to palaentologist Dr Scott Hocknull, "There are at least 50 other sites we know that are yet to be excavated so the next 20 to 30 years in Australian dinosaur science will be very exciting."
Yep. Given Australia's list of strange animals (platypus, echidna, wombat, emu, kangaroo...) I'm guessing we're about to add to it - well, our unique species had to evolve from something...
2 comments:
Haha - thanks for the history lesson. That creature doesn't look too happy in the picture, nor does he sound like something [one?] I'd want to mosey into. Maybe he's just mad that his name is Banjo?
Nope, can't say I'd like to meet Banjo - though he is named after one of our most esteemed poets.
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