Titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur dinosaurs , includingPatagotitan , cast around during the Cretaceous full point in reasonably much every niche of the world . Despite their global statistical distribution and teemingness , only a few mintage have been well preserved with more than one specimen found in the dodo record , and even fewer have been encounter with skull fragments . One species , Diamantinasaurus matildae , was get laid from three separate specimens , and now a fourth has been discovered in Australia that include a near - complete skull with some interesting , antecedently unsung , feature .
The new specimen ofD. matildae , which has been nicknamed Ann , shows some surprising similarities to another dinosaur species , Sarmientosaurus musacchioi , from Argentina . These include very belittled cone - forge , chisel - like teeth , which are actually successor teeth interchangeable to how humans and other species replace their teeth as they age . They also rule similarity in the bodily structure of the bones in the skull and back of the school principal .
“ This skull gives us a rare glance into the anatomy of this enormous sauropod that go in northeastern Australia almost 100 million year ago , ” say Dr Stephen Poropat , leadresearcher and palaeontologistfrom Curtin ’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences , in astatement .
Reconstructions of the dinosaur skull. Image Credit: Propat, S et al. (2023)
“ Our research suggests thatDiamantinasauruswas one of the most ‘ primitive ’ titanosaurs . Gaining a better savvy of this species might excuse why titanosaur were so successful , across so much of the world , correctly until the end of the Age of Dinosaurs . ”
The squad perform a CT scan on the skull shard of the specimen . The total skull is around 50 centimeter ( 19.6 inches ) long and shows most of the left side of the head though the right side is principally missing . The clappers were find oneself in 2018 on Elderslie Station , near Winton in Queensland , Australia .
It ’s uncommon to get hold the skull of a sauropod dinosaur . Despite being made up of six individuals , the Patagotitan currently on show at the Natural History Museum London had to have a replica head based on similar mintage as no veridical nous of a Patagotitan has ever been find .
The researchers consider that these bones contribute support to the theory that there was a domain span between what is now Australia and South America linking the Continent via Antarctica .
“ We suggest that sauropod were travelling between Australia and South America , via Antarctica , during the mid - Cretaceous . Warmer conditions that far to the south might have been favourable for them , ” Dr Poropat said .
The remarkable similarities between the skull morphology ofDiamantinasaurus matildaeandSarmientosaurus musacchioilend strength to the theory that the two species were closely colligate . Both dinosaur were known to be in the same time flow around 95 million eld ago and it is feasible that they roamed around the Southern Hemisphere together .
The paper is release in theRoyal Society Open Science .
