Researchers excavated dinosaur shin bones and vertebrae at two fossil sites in Victoria – the upper Strzelecki Group dated to 121 million years ago and the Eumeralla Formation from about 113 million years ago.
Jake Kotevski, a co-author of the study, called the latest discovery “groundbreaking” due to the unique insights it offers into Australia’s ecosystem during the Cretaceous era between 145 and 65 million years ago.
The new study offers “compelling evidence” for the interchange of animals between Australia and South America via Antarctica during the Early Cretaceous era, scientists said.
“The findings also challenge previous assumptions about body-size hierarchies in Gondwanan predator ecosystems highlighting Victoria’s unique Cretaceous fauna,” said Thomas Rich, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute.
Giant 20-foot-long raptor dinosaurs once roamed Australia, according to a new study that could rewrite the evolutionary history and hierarchy of predators on the continent.
