Diamantinasaurus matildae Diamantinasaurus

"Diamantina lizard"

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Diamantinasaurus 16 m (52 ft) long
10 people holding hands
Length
16 m (52 ft)
Period
Late Cretaceous (95–92.9 Mya)
Place
Australia
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Dinosauria

Diamantinasaurus is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod from Australia that lived during the early Late Cretaceous, about 94 million years ago. The type species of the genus is D. matildae, first described and named in 2009 by Scott Hocknull and colleagues based on fossil finds in the Winton Formation. Meaning “Diamantina lizard”, the name is derived from the location of the nearby Diamantina River and the Greek word sauros, “lizard”. The specific epithet is from the Australian song Waltzing Matilda, also the locality of the holotype and paratype. The known skeleton includes most of the forelimb, shoulder girdle, pelvis, hindlimb and ribs of the holotype, and one shoulder bone, a radius and some vertebrae of the paratype.

What we know

  • Named by Hocknull et al., 2009.
  • Body length estimated at about 16 m.
  • Fossils found in Australia.