Today we are going to talk about a dinosaur that nobody really knows much about that hails from down under in Australia. We are talking about Wintonotitan, a titanosaur sauropod that lived in the Middle Cretaceous in Australia! This is the first dinosaur that we’ve talked about that was found in Australia. However, there are actually a lot of fossils from Down Under from the Late and Middle Cretaceous (and by extension, Antarctica possibly since the continents were very close).
Wintonotitan was a titanosaur, the last group of the sauropods to evolve. Titanosaurs were the largest sauropods as well, with Argentinosaurus being 98 – 130 ft, which would make it bigger than a blue whale. Dreadnoughtus, another titanosaur, had the largest average mass of any land animal. Titanosaurs had small, rounded heads, huge necks, and longer forelimbs than hindlimbs. Many were very robust and heavyset, but Wintonotitan was an exception. While it had the name ‘Titan’, its bones weren’t as robust as its cousin and neighbor Diamantinasaurus (another Australian titanosaur). Wintonotitan is named after the Winton formation where it was found.
Many dinosaurs have been found in the Winton formation and Australia as a whole. Australian dinosaurs include but are not limited Wintonotitan, Austrosaurus (another titanosaur), Australovenator (related to Fukuiraptor), and Muttaburrasaurus (an Early Cretaceous hadrosaur distantly related to Lambeosaurus). Dinosaurs may have overlapped between Australia and Antarctica, so the ornithischian Laeallynasaura would have lived in Early Cretaceous Australia. Other animals include a species of lungfish, the crocodile Isisfordia, and the amphibian Koolasuchus (Early Cretaceous), which was the last known member of its specific family.
Right now, I have to proceed on and find a dinosaur that starts with X. Wish me luck!
Anay Ganesh 