Australia Dinosaur New Species
Meet Matilda, or Diamantinasaurus matildae (above, in an artist’s depiction), one of two giant, plant-eating dinosaur species recently discovered in Australia.
The fossilized creature, which measures almost 60 feet (18 meters) long, was unearthed in the northeastern outback town of Winton, Queensland, in 2006. A third new species, a carnivorous dinosaur dubbed Banjo, was also found at the site. (Watch a video about Banjo’s discovery.)
The dinosaurs were named after famed Australian poet Banjo Paterson and characters from his works.
The 98-million-year-old Matilda is the first new sauropod to be described in Australia in 75 years, said team member Scott Hocknull, a paleontologist and senior curator of geosciences at Queensland Museum in Brisbane.
The fossils, described recently in the journal PLoS One, were unveiled at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History in Winton on July 3, 2009.