Know your sauropods?
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Well, thanks to a breakthrough study from palaeontologists at Winton's Australian Age of Dinosaurs, more is known about their existence in prehistoric Australia than ever before.
Palaeontologists, led by Samantha Beeston, have published a study representing 12 new sauropod specimens. The work, published in PeerJ, describes and re-evaluates hundreds of bones collected over decades.
Sauropods were a herbivore, usually long necked and four legged. They were also the largest dinosaurs.
The museum has held dinosaur digs around Winton for more than 20 years, founder David Elliott said, but despite finding so many sauropods, only five had been described.
"We now know all of these sauropods are diamantinasaurians," he said. "On top of that, of the 12 new animals that have been described, seven have been described to species level.
"These dinosaurs help demonstrate the diverse natural history of Australia during the Cretaceous Period and will become important exhibits at the new Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History,"
Beeston used 3D scanning technology to examine more than 500 sauropod bones from the museum's collection.
Her approach allowed for better comparison between specimens from the Winton Formation, rocks that date between 98 and 95 million years ago.
This led to clearer identification of the unique features that separate the known species from each other in the newly described specimens.
Study and comparison of 12 new sauropod specimens by Beeston and colleagues led to two previously undescribed specimens being confidently assigned to Diamantinasaurus matildae, two others to Savannasaurus elliottorum and three to Wintonotitan wattsi.
"(The study) is really helping to fill in the gaps of our knowledge of Australia's sauropods and where they fit in the sauropod family tree and how that relates to other sauropods all round the world," Beeston said.
"The position of Australia sauropod dinosaurs on the worldwide sauropod family tree has always really jumped around a little bit so the discovery of these new specimens is helping us to refine their position a little bit better (to) help us to actually understand where they sit."
The museum is seeking funding support to finalise development of a multi-million-dollar Museum of Natural History in the Australian Outback.