Australian palaeontologists have found fossilized bones which they believe came from a theropod, the bipedal, carnivorous and predatory group of dinosaurs best known from the likes of Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor.
Elizabeth Smith of the Australian Opal Centre unearthed the set of opalized bones at Lightning Ridge in central New South Wales, before passing them on to the palaeontology team at the University of New England (UNE), they revealed on Wednesday.
However, due to the limited find, which constituted part of a hip bone and some tail bones, the team from UNE stopped short of giving the new dinosaur a name.
“We identified some similarities between this newly discovered set of bones and megaraptorids, but because of the limited material we couldn’t say for certain that it actually was a megaraptorid, or confirm that is belonged with any other theropod group,” UNE palaeontologist Tom Broughman said.
“Because of the uncertainty of its identification, this new specimen has not been given a formal name,” Broughman said.
From the dimensions of the bones, Broughman said the dinosaur would have been about five to six meters in length and was likely a carnivorous hunter.
The bones bear resemblance to that of megaratorids previously found in the area, a subtype of theropod best characterized by a strongly curved claw on the first digit of each hand.
Historically Australia has proved a difficult place for fossil hunters, with much of the land flat and heavily weathered. However, Lightning Ridge, where the latest fossils appeared, has a reputation for turning up big finds.
“Lightning Ridge is a pretty special place for doing vertebrate palaeontology,” Broughman said.
“Back in the Late Cretaceous, Lightning Ridge would have been at the shores of an inland sea, the Eromanga Sea, that covered most of central and northern Australia at the time, but which was steadily retreating northwards.”
“All of the fossils at Lightning Ridge have been found from the efforts of miners who excavate opals from deep underground,” Broughman added.
Broughman and his team hoped to find out more about the dinosaur fauna of Lightning Ridge, believing that what’s been found so far is just a fraction of what lies beneath the surface.
