Two fossil titanosaurs , a group of sauropod dinosaurs sleep together for the tremendous size of some species , have caused paleontologists to rethink the climatical history of the Cretaceous . The discoveries confirm the universe of these giant beasts in western Queensland in the late Cretaceous , and suggest there was likely a geological period of unusual warmth in Antarctica , which countenance their ancestors to migrate across the continent .
Dr Stephen Poropatof the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum has revealed two sauropod specimens found near Winton , Queensland in a cogitation published in the journalScientific Reports . One of these , Savannasaurus elliottorum , is trace for the first time in the paper .
One previousDiamantinasaurus matildaespecimen has been name before , but the fossil Dr Poropat describes is the first clip we have seen part of the cranium , not just of this species , but of any Australia sauropod . Both are 90 to 100 million year sure-enough .
Outline of a Diamantinasaurus matildae with the bones found for the newly line specimen shown . Travis Tischler / © Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History
As interesting as the two are to dinosaur enthusiasts , their locating and relationship to other elephantine herbivores may be more authoritative .
“ There is no evidence of titanosaurs in Australia more than 105 million years ago , ” Poropat told IFLScience .
Some sauropod coinage , members of the titanosauriforms of which titanosaurs were big examples , were present , but the species cross in the paper appear far too intimately related to South American titanosaurs to have evolved independently .
Instead , Poropat and his co - generator resolve they reached Australia during the late Albian stage , which ended 100 million twelvemonth ago . By that prison term Africa and India had detach themselves from the remnant of Gondwanaland . bar some unlikely fussy - pelagic swimming , there was only one way for these giant brute to have reached Australasia .
For most of the Cretaceous era Australia and South America were connect to Antarctica . Although Antarctica was not icebound as it is today , it was cold enough to mold a barrier , rather than a span , between the other two continent . Fossils are hard to come by from central Antarctica so palaeontologist are seeking clues to how permeable that barrier was , and therefore how stable the climate may have been , from remnants found on either side .
A titanosaurian migration , Poropat tell IFLScience , is important because it would indicate Antarctica served as a bridge for much longer than has previously been gain , although marsupials and turtles are known to have used a like path 50 million years ago .
It would also hint there may have been a flow where orbicular temperatures were above even the worldwide Cretaceous warmth . The newspaper publisher notes that sauropods were less various at mellow latitude , suggesting they favour the affectionateness .
The world in the Albion epoch with get it on titanosaurian locations , and a potential route from South America to Queensland . Poropat et al / Scientific Reports
By the standard of almost any other sort of animate being , the individuals described in the newspaper were truly monolithic . Poropat estimatesSavanassauruswas 12 to 15 meters prospicient ( 40 to 50 feet ) and weigh 15 to 20 tonnes ( 16.5 to 22 piles ) . Although theDiamantinasaurusdescribed in the paper was smaller , the authors think it was not fully arise . The one previousDiamantinasaurusspecimen was 15 to 16 meters ( 50 to 53 metrical unit ) long and belike count 23 metric ton ( 25 tons ) , or three big African elephants .
Despite this , Poropat say these were “ at the smaller remainder of the [ titanosaur ] spectrum . ” Their relation admit Argentinosaurus , which at 96 tonnes ( 106 tons ) may have been the heaviest species to ever walk on land .
