Scientists have found evidence that Australia was home to large carnivorous sauropods, that was almost as tall as T. Rex when it existed 90 million years ago (MYA).
This is the newest dinosaur discovery that has established that more species of carnivorous sauropods were spread out in the Age of the Dinosaurs. The US is not the only place were extremely large dino meat-eaters live, as reported in CNN.
Evidence like this will establish that large meat-eaters might be found in the least places expected, stressing that more species are just waiting to be dug up somewhere else.
Another relevance of the discovery is that Australia might have more than one species of theropod meat eater on the loose during that epoch.
Findings on the newly discovered meat-eater
According to a statement from the University of Queensland, the researchers studied the dino footprints. Based on known data about carnivores, they determined that these dinosaurs were to be estimated three meters at the hips.
The estimated length of the theropod is at 10 meters long, the length of a school bus that more or less is what can be guessed.
Lead researcher Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist, is among the many experts who took part of the study. In terms of length, the Tyrannosaurus Rex or T.Rex is measuring to be the 3.25-meter height to the top of the hip. Its length from nose to tail, will be 12 to 13 meters long, and evolved about 90 million years ago (MYA) after giant dinosaurs in prehistoric Queensland, according to Kezi.
Based on the evidence left by the dinosaurs, the Queensland tracks might be that of giant carnosaurs which include the Allosaurus. When they existed, they were the largest alpha predator of their epoch and precursor to evolving bigger meat eaters, that climaxed with the largest Tyrannosaurid 'T.Rex'.
Analysis of the footprints showed they came from the late Jurassic period from 165 and 151 million years ago. Its length is 50 to 60 centimeters but is 80 centimeters at most, according to Romilio.
He added that when the footprints were left behind by the animal, the then-extinct carnosaurs were roaming through an environment that was a forest and swamp at the same time.
One of the most exciting implications of the study according to Romilio is that North America had the T.Rex, in South America is the Giganotosaurus, Africa was home to the weird Spinosaurus, and this recent discovery shows that large Carnosaurs may have roamed millions of years ago in Australia, cited in Phys Org.
It is only this time that the evidence from these fossils has been studied by researchers, surprisingly the evidence was found fifty years earlier or more, said Romilio.
Discovery of the theropod footprints
Most evidence will get stowed for years, just like how these footprints were found in ceilings of coal mines at Rosewood near Ipswich, and Oakey north of Toowoomba, during the '50s to '60s, explained Romilio which got hidden and analyzed till now, confirmed in Kake.
It is not common to find out that some fossil laying around for decades becomes significant years later due to many factors, as stated by a paper in the journal Historical Biology.
Another spectacular evidence is that in 2017, the biggest footprint (5 feet by 9 inches) made by a sauropod dinosaur was found in northwest Australia.
Another print was made by a meat-eating dinosaur that was 3 feet by 9 inches it was discovered in Bolivia in July 2016. Finding evidence of large carnivores in Australia might yield larger specimens later.
