Winton dinosaur museum unearths 100 million year old teeth

It's the latest big find from the Winton Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History first discovered a dozen sauropod teeth among the scattered fossilised remains in 2019.

The teeth were discovered at Elderslie Station near Winton, which was on an inland sea 96 million years ago.

The museum first discovered a dozen sauropod teeth in 2019 and now a second excavation has uncovered another five teeth, bringing the total find to 17.

Scientists say the teeth belonged to a sauropod which stood between one to 10 metres tall and which used them to feed on vegetation.

The sauropod is known as a diamantinasaurus and Dr Stephen Poropat from Melbourne's Swinburne University of Technology said it revealed details about the diet of sauropods.

He said scientists initially thought they couldn't chew and instead swallowed stones to grind up food in their stomachs but now coarse scratches on the teeth suggest the diamantinasaurus may have chewed harder food.

"The relatively robust teeth of diamantinasaurian sauropods would have enabled them to procure parts of plants that were relatively hardy, conifer cones for example," Mr Poropat said.

"The discovery is doubly significant as sauropod dinosaur teeth are exceptionally rare in Australia, despite being relatively commonly preserved elements in Jurassic-Cretaceous deposits elsewhere."

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