New species of dinosaur discovered

A NEW small bodied dinosaur that existed more than 125 million years ago has been discovered at the Flat Rocks site at Inverloch – the first new dinosaur found in the Gippsland area for 20 years.
Approximately the size of a wallaby, the herbivorous dinosaur named Galleonosaurus dorisae was identified via ancient jaw bones unearthed during the 2008 Dinosaur Field Dreaming dig.
Whilst the jaw bones were discovered nearly nine years ago, research findings determining the new species were only released last week.
“It’s taken this long to be researched,” Dinosaur Dreaming dig coordinator Lesley Kool said.
“It has been compared with every other upper jaw of the small plant eating dinosaurs of the world which is how it was identified as a new species.”
The incredible finding was made by Gerry Kool of Wonthaggi, husband of Lesley, who discovered and broke open the rock that contained the jaw bone.
Mr Kool has been volunteering on digs for around 20 years and was with Mrs Kool when they first found the Flat Rocks locality in 1991.
“We chose to prospect around The Caves and found the fossil layer,” Mrs Kool said.
When excavating the locality in 2008, some of the fossil layer was removed which exposed the fossil rocks containing remnants of dinosaur bones.
“We have a team of 15 to 25 volunteers per field season and my husband just happened to be one of those volunteers on that day,” Mrs Kool said.
“He was fortunate enough that the rock he picked up had the jaw in it.
“He’s very excited. It’s not every day that you get to find the jaw bone of a new species of dinosaur.”
The region of the finding dates back to the Cretaceous period, about 145 million to 66 million years ago.
At this time, a rift valley existed between Antarctica and Australia (now the eastern margin of Australia) where kilometres of volcanoes were actively erupting.
Consequently, sedimentary basins occurred when silt from volcanoes and other materials, such as dinosaur bones, were carried down huge rivers where they would mix and settle. These sedimentary basins reveal a lost world and helps to provide us with a glimpse into the distance past.
The Galleonosaurus dinosaur belonged to a family called ornithopods, of which five other types of ornithpods have been found in the region, suggesting it was a highly diverse species that thrived in the rift valley.
Mrs Kool said her team finished their latest dig a few weeks ago.
“We have a one week dig over winter this year to verify if a concentration of bones found in 2017 is just an anomaly or whether it is part of a bigger concentration of bones. If it is, we’ll go back next summer to excavate,” Mrs Kool said.
The winter dig will occur near Cape Otway lighthouse.
The jaw bone discovered by Mr Kool is now part of the collection at the Museum of Victoria and will be available to visiting researchers.

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Mar 19 2019. Filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry