Australian Dinosaurs

Down Under in the Cretaceous - a who's who -

Caenagnathid

Kronosaurus queenslandicus

Leaellynasaura amicagraphica

Minmi paravertebra

Muttaburrasaurus

Muttaburrasaurus Junior

The Muttaburrasaurus egg hatches (movieclip)

Nanantius eos

Neoceratopian

Pteranodon sp

Woolungosaurus glendowerensis

or read more about the dinosaurs of Australia and especially Queensland

Austrosaurus mckillopi lived around 100 million years ago. Remains were found near Maxwellton, Queensland, Australia in 1932. It reached a length of 15 metres and a height of 4 metres at the shoulders. The giant sauropods were plant eaters and are the largest land animals that ever lived. 

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Did they live in ancient Australia, or didn't they? Caenagnathids were meat eating hunters and reached a size of about two to three metres. They lived around 105 million years ago. A lower jaw fragment and a vertebra were found at Dinosaur Cove in Victoria, Australia. Comparisons with remains found on other continents lead to the conclusion, that these dinosaurs roamed Australia. Hopefully other remains will be found in the future to confirm this!

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Kronosaurus queenslandicus roamed the shallow Eromanga Sea in what today is Queenslands Outback. This was 110 million years ago. It reached a length of 8 to 9 metres. Remains were found in Hughenden, Queensland, Australia in 1899 already. Kronosaurs were highly manoeuvrable swimmers who fed on the rich feeding grounds of the Eromanga Sea.

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Leaellynasaura amicagraphica were the gazelles of the dinosaur world. They roamed the open country and fed on herbs, grasses and ferns. They were quite small, only up to a metre in length. They lived 105 million years ago and remains were found in Dinosaur Cove, Victoria, Australia. This dinosaur was named by its discoverers after their daughter Leallyn.

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Remains of Minmi paravertebra were found near Minmi Crossing, Roma, Queensland, Australia in 1964. It lived 115 million years ago and reached a length of three metres. The plant eating Minmi is protected by powerful body armour against predator attacks. It even has spikes on its tail, that make it impossible for the attacker to jump up from the back. And Minmi could run quite fast!

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Muttaburrasaurus is named after the small town of Muttaburra in Central Queensland, Australia. Muttaburrasaurus lived 120 million years ago and grew to a size of 7 to 8 metres length and 2.4 metres height at the shoulder. They were sizable dinosaurs and they were equipped with a large hollow resonating chamber on top of their snout. It is quite possible that this chamber was used to make sounds for communication between the animals. Muttaburrasaurus was a plant eater and could chew through tough vegetation with its strong teeth.

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Nanantius eos is a small primitive bird, but it belonged to different evolutionary branch than today's birds. It was quite small, only the size of a blackbird. Remains have been found on Warra Station near Boulia, Queensland, Australia.

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In the early 1990s a lower arm bone was found in the Strzelecki group in Victoria, Australia. Does this single bone prove that Neoceratopians roamed Australia? It was dated back to 115 million years ago. The only match to this bone were others found in Canada belonging to Leptoceratops gracilis. This is how the Australian Neoceratopians could have looked like! They would have been two metres long and were plant eaters.

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Pteranodon remains were found in Queensland, Australia and dated back to 110 million years ago. These huge flyers had a wing span of 7 to 9 metres. The Australian fossils are not complete and the exact shape of Pteranodon is unclear but had to be similiar to remains found on other continents.

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A partial skeleton of Woolungosaurus glendowerensis was found in Queensland, Australia, and dated to 110 million years ago. It belongs to the Elasmosauridae family, the swimmers with extremely long necks. These animals were not as agile in the water as the Kronosaur. They were big, 8 to 10 metres long. They used their long necks to strike at their prey from the depths.

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The Cretaceous was the time when Australia started to break away from the ancient continent of Gondwana and became the isolated place it is today. This was a time of rainforests, huge shallow inland seas and dinosaurs and reptiles. All the dinosaurs I have drawn for our dinosaur books have lived in Australia in the Cretaceous. Most of these dinosaurs have actually lived in what today is known as Queensland. I have tried to create a picture of this time and place, of about 105 million years ago in Queensland. 

Much of what I have drawn is based on the remains which were found. Many other features, such as the colour of the animals and the structure of their skins are not known for sure. Different artists will use their imagination in different ways to fill the gaps in our knowledge. 

The Neoceratopian and the Caenagnathid are dinosaurs whose reconstruction was based on only a very few bones found. Have they really lived here and did they really look the way I draw them? It is very much possible, but research continues and tomorrow's scientific opinions might differ a lot from todays!

Further recommended reading:

• Prehistoric Australia, Brian Mackness, Drummoyne, Australia 1987

• The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs And Prehistoric Animals, Douglas Palmer, London 1999

• Muttaburrasaurus, Mary E. White, Ferntree Gully, 1990 (this is a very good children's book about the Muttaburrasaurus in its time and space)

Superb information about the topic of Australian Dinosaurs can be found on Dann's Dinosaur Reconstructions. I have spent a long time surfing Dann's excellent website. It is full of info about all the different dinosaur remains that were found in Australia. Have a look at Dann's colourful illustrations and the way he imagines the dinosaurs to have looked. His website is also full of interesting links to other Dinosaur sites.

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