Photo: AP
Largest ever in Australia: A bone of the titanosaur at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane.
Scientists unveiled bones from two 82-foot behemoths they said were the largest dinosaurs ever found in Australia. Fossilised bones from the two titanosaurs were found some months ago by ranchers near the town of Eromanga, 600 miles west of the Queensland State capital, Brisbane. They were put on display for the first time at the Queensland Museum after a long period of excavation and scientific identification. “These are the largest bones ever discovered in Australi
a,” museum curator Scott Hocknull said. The biggest of the bones — a humerus, from a foreleg — measures five ft long and weighs 220 pounds. “They would have been about two buses in length,” Hocknull said of the animals. Titanosaurs are among the largest of the prehistoric animals known as sauropods — long-necked, long-tailed plant-eating dinosaurs that existed during the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods between 100 million and 200 million years ago. Their bones are found all over the world. Hocknull said the two recent finds — nicknamed Cooper and George — indicated the animals were about 23 ft longer than the previous biggest reported titanosaur whose remains were found in Australia, also in Queensland in 1999.
COMPLIED BY SUBAJAYANTHI B.
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