Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday 6/3/2008
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Published: MTWTFS-
Brief: UNIQ_CORP
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Gond-wana
dinos..rs
rule,
OK?
Southern continents, including Australia, are taking
new pride in the fossil records of their unique local
species, writes Deborah Smith.
When the Australian
palaeontologist
Steve Salisbury
travelled to South
America, he noticed something
very unusual about
the toy dinosaurs on sale. "You never see any
plastic T. rex," he recalls.
The ferocious Tyrannosaurus from North
America may still be popular with Australian
children but in Argentina, in particular, toy
boxes are bursting with a different meat
eater: one that once roamed that southern
continent, and perhaps ours, called
Giganotosaurus.
Discovered a little more than a decade ago
in Patagonia, the 15-metre-long giant
dethroned Tyrannosaurus as the world's
biggest known land carnivore. Other giant
carnivores from the southern continents that
match the king of the dinosaurs in physical
stature include the terrifying Spinosaurus and
the shark-toothed Carcharodontosaurus, both
recently unearthed in Africa.
However, these southern hemisphere dinosaurs still have a long way to go to catch up
with T. rex in the fame stakes.
Salisbury are re-evaluating Australian fossils,
based on a recent boom in discoveries of
southern hemisphere dinosaurs.
When dinosaurs roamed Down Under,
Australia was connected to South America,
Africa, India, Madagascar and Antarctica in
the supercontinent of Gondwana. It now
appears Gondwana was dominated by its
own diverse groups of dinosaurs, including
giant plant eaters called titanosaurs.
At up to 35 metres in length, some, such as
Argentinosaurus, found in Patagonia, were
among the biggest creatures that ever walked the Earth. Massive footprints 1.5 metres
long near Broome also reveal that an even
bigger, elephant-legged plant eater once
called Australia home.
Dinosaur lovers will be able to see some of
their old favourites, as well as some not so
familiar faces, when a permanent dinosaur
exhibition at the Australian Museum in
Sydney opens next week.
It also includes information on the new
technologies and important recent discover-
ies worldwide that are transforming our
fossil finds in terms of their relationship to
understanding of these extinct creatures, the
museum's palaeontology collection manager,
Robert Jones, says.
Even something as mundane as a dinosaur
dropping can help answer scientific questions,
he says. Plant material discovered in a dropping in India in 2005 revealed that grasses had
evolved much earlier than thought and were
part of the diet of some dinosaurs.
northern hemisphere dinosaurs, he says. But,
just as Argentinians have a newly found pride
Jones says new dating methods make it
possible to work out the age of the fossils
in their local species, researchers including
themselves, which can be more accurate than
dating the rocks in which they are found.
"A lot of popular literature and children's
books are dominated by what we know of
northern hemisphere dinosaurs," says
Salisbury, of the University of Queensland.
Scientists, too, have tended to assess all new
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Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday 6/3/2008
Page: 20
Section: Health & Science
Region: Sydney Circulation: 212,700
Type: Capital City Daily
Size: 1,200.96 sq.cms.
Published: MTWTFS-
Brief: UNIQ_CORP
Page 2 of 3
CT scans provide detailed information
as well. "How this is possible, and what it
about an animal's anatomy, such as the size of
its braincase, and are also used to study eggs.
"You can find out if there is an embryo inside
[using a CT scan]," Jones says.
One of the important finds of the past decade was an Italian specimen of a small meat
means for their physiology, is something we
are still grappling with," Salisbury says.
The first dinosaur fossil to be unearthed in
Australia - the claw of a carnivore - was found
eater, Scipionyx samniticus, which still had
fossilised impressions of many of its internal
organs and muscles.
Three years ago, American scientists ex-
in 1903 at Inverloch on the Victorian coastline.
Giant footprints of meat-eating dinosaurs,
a partial skeleton of a small plant eater that
lived about 105 million years ago, and a rare
dinosaur upper jaw are among the most
recent major finds in the same region by a
The Holy Grail of retrieving DNA from a
dinosaur, however, is very remote because
team led by the veteran hunters Tom Rich, of
Museum Victoria, and Patricia Vickers-Rich,
of Monash University.
Discoveries in Australia have not been as
prolific as overseas, and dinosaur hunting is
the material degrades easily. Bringing extinct
not as well funded, although Winton in
tracted blood vessels from the bone of a T. rex.
Amazingly, they were still flexible and elastic
after 68 million years.
creatures back to life is still in the realm of
science fiction, but to see dinosaurs all we
have to do is look to the skies, where they are
flying all around us.
The similarity between birds and two-
legged therapods like T. rex was first noted
150 years ago and they share more than 100
anatomical features, including a wishbone,
swivelling wrists and three forwardpointing toes.
Discoveries of feathered dinosaur remains
in China in the past 15 years have finally
dispelled any doubts that birds evolved from
dinosaurs, Jones says.
In particular, one Chinese fossil unveiled in
2001 - a 130 million-year-old small dinosaur
covered from head to tail in primitive feathers
and a downy fluff - provided extremely good
evidence for the view that feathers first developed for warmth, and that flight came later.
Last year it became obvious that a dinosaur
did not have to be tiny to have feathers, with
the discovery in China of Gigantoraptor
erlianensis, which lived 70 million years ago
and, at 1400 kilograms, was more than 30
times heavier than other feathered species.
One of the big questions about Australian
Queensland is proving to be a treasure trove,
with many of the finds displayed in the local
Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum.
Salisbury says much can be learnt from over-
seas about the best geological sites and
methods to find dinosaur fossils. In Australia,
graziers are also now more knowledgeable
about looking out for bones on their property.
"Working with them is a great way for Aussie
dino-hunters to target new areas," he says.
A Queensland cattle and sheep farmer,
Stuart Mackenzie, had dreamt since childhood of finding dinosaur bones on the family
property before uncovering some of the
biggest ever found in Australia. Put on display last year at the Queensland Museum,
they came from two titanosaurs, dubbed
Cooper and George - massive plant eaters
that lived 95 million years ago and grew up to
25 metres long.
Sadly, no dinosaur eggs have been found in
Australia. They can reveal an enormous
amount of information about the social life of
dinosaurs, Salisbury says. A fossil of an adult
Psittacosaurus with a creche of 34 young, for
example, has been found in China.
"It's now pretty clear a lot of dinosaurs
dinosaurs is how they coped with the cold
displayed some degree of parental care, and
and dark, Salisbury says.
perhaps even sat on their eggs to help incubate
them, which may have been another possible
reason for feathers."
Between 120 and 95 million years ago,
south-eastern Australia was close to, or
within, the Antarctic Circle and would have
been in permanent darkness for several
months each winter.
"Either they were leaping about doing what
dinosaurs do, in the dark, or migrating further
Some of the sauropods and duck-billed
dinosaurs built their nests in large colonies, not
unlike the rookeries of birds today.
Research on dinosaur bones suggests they
grew very rapidly when young, which helps
north to stay within daylight," he says. Moving
explain how they got to such large sizes,
north would have been no easy feat, particularly for smaller dinosaurs, because at the time
Australia was divided up into smaller regions
by an inland sea and "migration routes would
have been fairly restricted", Salisbury says.
Salisbury says.
On the other hand, conditions may not
have been as harsh as imagined because of
the large land mass of Gondwana and
warmer currents from the north flowing
down the Australian coastline.
Turtles, aquatic and flying reptiles, fish,
platypus and mammals all lived in the dark
Biomechanical experts have also refined
their estimates of how fast the creatures
could move, with a study last year showing
that a six-tonne T. rex could have outrun a
professional sportsman, reaching speeds of
up to 29 kmh.
A Velociraptor would have outstripped
them both, at 39 kmh, with the chicken-sized
Compsognathus taking line honours at
64 kmh.
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Thursday 6/3/2008
Page: 20
Section: Health & Science
Region: Sydney Circulation: 212,700
Type: Capital City Daily
Size: 1,200.96 sq.cms.
Published: MTWTFS-
Turtles, aquatic and flying
reptiles, fish, platypus and
mammals all lived in
the dark as well.
Up she goes... Giganotosaurus, the largest flesh-eating dinosaur to roam the sout hem hemisphere, and perhaps Australia, being instal led at the Australian Museum. Photo: Steven Siewert
RECENT EUREKA MOMENTS
Formation,
Argentina
Sahara. Niger
EllcInaLs fish-eater wit,
long thin snoLt called
_aliest enown
5uc1.amimus tenerensfs
cinosour 220 mil ion
'ear tic Ecraprcr.
if s:oserer in 1991.
110 ri lion years old.
Isch ig ualasto
Noracca
_arge meal-eaters
Oc'ludres^.ros m d
Cwrrnaraacntasourus round
Pisdura. central India
Copra ices Ifossil poo; if j ant
p 3nt-eati-g d- osac'o x -laini-g
grass discaveed -n 2005.
.14°S
Indicates direction in which
Argentina
0-e of world's richest
silts wih thousands
of eggsand'eats of
Sannrl]odo ri}gp
1 the continents moved away
Winton. Oueensland
i I]mtr'1ued f: I]CSaLr Ira(:l¢. Glin ct
Australia's largest c ncsacrs, a
?J- net r. long saula:rnd icr anal
Antarctica
Right: artist's impression of
an Eoraptorfram Argentina.
C:r,°irr1Q .omuu c+mont7nicus, a"
I
New Zealand
kr: r inrssul .r I h sail I issurs
of was resereec. Nay hive straned
ford lit in c:li rie 11 ice a waher hi if.
CHINA
Junggar Basin, northwest China
' ctnfong voocJi; oldest known
'Ellot' er-f- li+edaooul
arr oloroi i;arl,nsauru.=. r: :a fm-nd
4S ri lion yrars aja was
in 21736. 160 mil io-'iea-s old.
disco rereo ill 1999.
Dinosaur Cove, Victoria
Po 3rdinusours t-3t I-vrc here
ANTARCTICA
Alberta, Canada
rsl 1 rh
AUSTRALIA
no II an years o1c
ii
Malta, Montana
LI'cll-p cscrar0:lurk-t1 ltd
inle'nal orsans.
Patagonia,
fossil Wand in Africa.
NORTH AMERICA
E; dCt.'r'i0)_1g0<_d'J+JS L Istcwe'rd'with
ImN Iiscl
floss: and a:7ss:01y
94102 Ti 11 on Years GIG.
test iDedi"1493.
Above: palaeontologist Paul
Sertno displays a replica skull
of a CarcAarodorrtvsaums
FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD
11cF120 ill iG ° yea s ago when area
was rail hin the rlnia'olio Ci--c.a
Transatfantlc Mountains
200-mi llc-ynarsIc rarin ea c ca ltd Crra4:H;,ns<mrus rn,vri lounn n 1991. S..:)wn d nsau-s [:nu d I an wil Ili- lhi Anlaldic cilrle.
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) licensed copy
ylclan, Liaoning, China
.Yor in top drosau, site Fealhcned
-ii
:11riesanrs ..., u:li rr Snnsar-uct. irwx.
to ye and Pratrenaecpteryx
EUROPE
Naples, Italy
11irk rneal-ralcr-9iipirxayx sanrnifrtUt
fount in 1945 113s iossi.ised
imprrccnoneof i lrra nrgalls,
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