There
were a few different types
of
dinosaurs in Australia.
Although the world's dinosaur history starts in Triassic period, the
first Australian fossil
records are from Jurassic.
We know, however, that dinosaurs were in Australia during Triassic,
because there are fossilised dinosaur tracks in Australia that date
back to Triassic.
Ozraptor is a carnivorous dinosaur that
walked on two legs and was much smaller than the massive Rhoetosaurus -
a Sauropod
found near Roma in Queensland. Sauropods are the largest animals ever
found on the Earth, with long necks, small heads and herbivorous diet.
The Cretacean dinosaurs found in Australia are much more numerous.
Carnivorous dinosaurs (Theropods) include Timimus, found in southern
Australia, and Kakuru, famous for the fact that its bone turned to
opal. Minmi, found near Roma in Queensland was an
armoured dinosaur (more exactly a nodosaurid); and Kronosaurus, found
near Richmond in Queensland was
a pliosaur (a marine dinosaur). Two Ornithopods (herbivores that belong
to the
bird-hipped, as opposed to the earliest, lizard-hipped dinosaurs) are
Muttaburrasaurus, found in the outback Queensland;
and Leaellynasaura,
found in Victoria (which during the Cretaceous period was situated in
polar region). An example on a cretaceous Sauropod (the massive,
long-necked herbivores) is Austrosaurus, found near Winton in central
Queensland, where many new findings have been made relatively recently.
Note:
This site uses
British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
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