- Joined
- Dec 3, 2017
- Messages
- 26,290
- Reaction score
- 16,776
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
Rare long-necked dinosaur that roamed the polar world unearthed in Australia | Science | The Guardian
Discovery of a single vertebra of an elaphrosaur in Victoria hugely expands known range of the group, which had teeth as juveniles but beaks as adults
A dinosaur relative of T. rex and Velociraptor with an unusually long neck, and which may have transitioned from predator to plant-eater as it reached adulthood, has been unearthed in Victoria.
The elaphrosaur was a member of the theropod family of dinosaurs that included all of the predatory species. It stood about the height of a small emu, measuring 2m from its head to the end of a long tail, and had short arms, each ending in four fingers.
Stephen Poropat, the lead researcher behind the find, at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, said elaphrosaurs were “really rare,” with just three named species from Tanzania, China and Argentina. “This is the first record of the group in Australia, and only the second Cretaceous record worldwide.”
==================================================
Rare but apparently worldwide distribution.
Discovery of a single vertebra of an elaphrosaur in Victoria hugely expands known range of the group, which had teeth as juveniles but beaks as adults
A dinosaur relative of T. rex and Velociraptor with an unusually long neck, and which may have transitioned from predator to plant-eater as it reached adulthood, has been unearthed in Victoria.
The elaphrosaur was a member of the theropod family of dinosaurs that included all of the predatory species. It stood about the height of a small emu, measuring 2m from its head to the end of a long tail, and had short arms, each ending in four fingers.
Stephen Poropat, the lead researcher behind the find, at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, said elaphrosaurs were “really rare,” with just three named species from Tanzania, China and Argentina. “This is the first record of the group in Australia, and only the second Cretaceous record worldwide.”
==================================================
Rare but apparently worldwide distribution.