Muttaburrasaurus
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 Muttaburrasaurus skeleton
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Extinct (fossil)
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| Muttaburrasaurus langdoni Bartholomai & Molnar, 1981 |
Muttaburrasaurus was a herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur related to Camptosaurus and Iguanodon, from the early Cretaceous Period of what is now northeastern Australia. After Minmi, it is Australia's most completely known dinosaur from skeletal remains.
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[edit] Discovery and species
The species was initially described from a partial skeleton found by Doug Langdon in 1963 near Muttaburra, Queensland, Australia, which place also provides the creature's name. It was named in 1981 by Dr Alan Bartholomai and Ralph Molnar,[1] who honoured its discoverer with its specific name langdoni. Some teeth have been discovered further north, near Hughenden[2] and south at Lightning Ridge,[2] in Northwestern New South Wales. A skull, known as the "Dunluce Skull" was discovered by John Stewart-Moore and 14 year old Robert Walker on Dunluce Station, between Hughenden and Richmond in 1987.[2]
Muttaburrasaurus species
- M. langdoni (type)
[edit] Paleobiology
Muttaburrasaurus was capable of either (bipedal) or (quadrupedal) movement. The three middle digits of the forelimb were joined together into a hoof-like pad for walking on.
Muttaburrasaurus had very powerful jaws equipped with shearing teeth. These were probably an adaptation for eating tough vegetation such as cycads. It also had an enlarged, hollow, upward-bulging muzzle that might have been used to produce distinctive calls or for display purposes. However, as no fossilised nasal tissue has been found, this remains conjectural.
[edit] Muttaburrasaurus skeleton casts
Reconstructed skeleton casts are on display at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum in Katsuyama, Japan, and at the Flinders Discovery Centre in Hughenden, Queensland.
[edit] In popular culture
- Muttaburrasaurus appeared on the fifth episode of Walking with Dinosaurs.
- A young Muttaburrasaurus is featured in The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving.
[edit] References
- ^ Bartholomai A &Molnar RE(1981) "Muttaburrasaurus: a new Iguanodontid (Ornithischia:Ornithopoda) dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Queensland". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 20(2):319-349
- ^ a b c Molnar RE. (1996) "Observations on the Australian ornithopod dinosaur, Muttaburrasaurus". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 39(3):639-652
- Cannon, Libby (2006). "The Muttaburra Lizard". Australian Age of Dinosaurs (4): 16–31.
[edit] External links
- BBC Science and Nature: Prehistoric Life
- Muttaburrasaurus langdoni, from Dann's Dinosaurs. (article)
