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112 to 104 million years agoEarly Cretaceous periodName:MuttaburrasaurusPronunciation:Mutt-a-BURR-ah-SAW-rusMeaning:Named after the township of Muttaburra, Australia Animal Type: Herbivore Dietary Type: Dinosaur (ornithopod)Size: Up to 9 metres long Weight:Up to 4 tonnes Major Fossil Finds: Australia Evidence Muttaburrasaurus is known from one partial skeleton found at Muttaburra, Queensland, Australia. Muttaburrasaurus was very similar to Iguanodon being a large four-legged herbivore that was capable of rearing onto two legs. Like Iguanodon it had a pronounced claw on the thumb while the three middle fingers were joined together into a hoof-like pad. Its jaws were very powerful and equipped with shearing teeth which were probably an adaptation for eating tough vegetation such as cycads. These were common in this part of Australia at the time. Muttaburrasaurus 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.
Info ;) • Muttaburrasaurus was first found on Rosebury Downs station beside the Thompson river near the town of Muttaburra in Queensland, Australia, in 1963. It was discovered by a local grazier, Mr D.Langdon of Muttaburra. The fossil remains had been scattered about by the feet of cattle for years and some of the locals had taken pieces home with them. Once the importance of the find was known the locals were asked to return the material they had souvenired, and most was recovered. • At its time it was the most complete dinosaur skeleton found in Australia (now surpassed by Minmi paravertebra, an ankylosaur from the same region). It was a herbivore similar to Iguanodon (if not closely related) that spent most of its time on all fours, but could raise up onto its hind legs to feed or to run fast from predators. It had an unusual wide, low skull with a hollow chamber on top of its snout. • The exact relationships of Muttaburrasaurus are unclear, although it appears to be a basal ornithopod more derived than Tenontosaurus. It may be related to the dryosaurs, including the basal ornithopod Gasparinisauracincosaltensis from the Late Cretaceous of South America. There seem to be many basal dryomorph dinosaurs known from Gondwanan countries, such as Dryosauruslettowvorbecki and Kangnasauruscoetzei from Africa, and an Antarctic "dryosaur" specimen.
Picture ;) Muttaburrasaurus
Extinction ;) • http://www.abc.net.au/dinosaurs/chronology/106/default.htm
The End of the Dinosaurs: The K-T extinction ;) • Almost all the large vertebrates on Earth, on land, at sea, and in the air (all dinosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, and pterosaurs) suddenly became extinct about 65 Ma, at the end of the Cretaceous Period. At the same time, most plankton and many tropical invertebrates, especially reef-dwellers, became extinct, and many land plants were severely affected. This extinction event marks a major boundary in Earth's history, the K-T or Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, and the end of the Mesozoic Era. The K-T extinctions were worldwide, affecting all the major continents and oceans. There are still arguments about just how short the event was. It was certainly sudden in geological terms and may have been catastrophic by anyone's standards.
