A new species of dinosaur, the Savannasaurus elliottorum, has been discovered in Australia. This is a very important discovery because dinosaur fossils are rarely found in Australia, so this discovery can help paleontologists get a better understanding of how dinosaurs spread around the world millions of years ago.

The man who found the bones is named David Elliott. He was herding sheep in northern Australia when he came upon what looked like fossilized bones. He showed his wife and she put two of the bones together and they uncovered that they belonged to the foot of a new type of herbivore dinosaur. Scientists uncovered that this dinosaur belonged to a completely new species in the “sauropods” group, which are vegetarians.

The bones that were discovered by David Elliott were found nearly 10 years ago, but they have just recently been identified and given a name. The bones belonged to the Savannasaurus elliottorum.

The bones prove that this creature was most likely 50 feet long, which a long neck and large body. It weighed 40,000 pounds, which is as much as a blue whale. This amazing dinosaur lived nearly 95 million years ago in Australia.

It is still a mystery to scientists and paleontologists as to how these dinosaurs spread to Australia in this time period, but this discovery brought them a little closer to cracking the case. In the time of the Savannasaurus elliottorum, Australia was connected to South America through Antarctica, so any dinosaurs would have to go through Antarctica to get there.

While many dinosaur discoveries have been made in the United States and Europe, not nearly as many have been made in Australia, so this is a big deal in the world of paleontology. Australia has been exposed to 30 million years of erosion, so not many areas there are fit for fossil searching.

West morris central Sophomore, Rachel Hefner, said, “I think it’s very interesting how we can discover things about the world’s’ past through dinosaur bones.”

It is, in fact, amazing how scientists are able to find out so many things about the travel patterns and distribution of dinosaurs through this important discovery. Scientists are now realizing that they were incorrect in some of their assumptions and theories about where dinosaurs traveled from and how they got to Australia.                       

The discovery of the Savannasaurus elliottorum, made by David Elliott, has provided a lot of new and useful information regarding the migration of dinosaurs to Australia and other parts of the world, and the species of sauropods and what they were like. If paleontologists keep searching and making new discoveries, then they will be able to figure out more about the world’s history and new species of dinosaurs.

Photo from businessinsider.com

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