Life reconstruction of the first Australian elaphrosaur. Image credit: Ruairidh Duncan.
SciNews has an article about a new dinosaur discovery in Australia. This new dinosaur lived around 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. It's a rare type of dinosaur that belongs to the group Elaphrosaurinae, which are odd ceratosaurians known from fossils from Africa, Asia, and Argentina. The fossils were discovered by Dinosaur Dreaming volunteer Jessica Parker in 2015 near Cape Otway, Victoria. All the details can be found in a paper that was published in the journal Gondwana Research.
The newly-discovered dinosaur belongs to Elaphrosaurinae, an enigmatic group of gracile ceratosaurian dinosaurs known from the Late Jurassic period of Africa and Asia, and the early Late Cretaceous period of Argentina.
“Elaphrosaurs were strange looking dinosaurs — they ran low to the ground on two legs, with a slender body, long neck, stubby arms, and a delicate toothless skull,” said Dr. Tim Ziegler, collection manager of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria.
“They started life eating a wide range of foods, but shed their teeth as they aged. Elaphrosaurs are unusual among theropods because adults had a plant-based diet, rather than hunting prey.”
“Young elaphrosaurs might have hunted the tiny monotremes along with snapping up insects and fruits.”
