Australia ’s most concluded dinosaur skeleton has been unveil as a Modern genus , one which evolved much more slowly than its relatives on other continents .
The 1989 find of a more than 90 percent intact fossil near Richmond , Queensland bolster up Australia ’s limited dinosaur platter . The bones clearly belonged to an ankylosaur , which University of Queensland PhD studentLucy Leaheydescribed in astatementas : “ A group of four - legged , herbivorous dinosaurs , close tie in to stegosaur . ”
Only one other Australian ankylosaurus , a very incomplete specimen know as Minmi , has been canvass . First examination of the new dodo placed it in the same genus as Minmi . However , inthe journalPeer J , Leahey has completed a more thorough discipline of what she has dubbedKunbarrasaurusieversiand found something much more interesting .
“ Our work has reveal that Kunbarrasaurus is more primitive than the legal age of other well - love ankylosaurs from North America and Asia,”saidDr . Steve Salisbury , Leahey ’s supervisor . “ It appears to represent an early , less heavily ‘ armored ’ phallus of the group , close to the point at which the ankylosaurs diverge from the other independent lineage of armored dinosaurs , the stegosaurs . ”
Leahey tell IFLScience that Kunbarrasaurus was found in a 100 to 110 million - year - old deposit . By that time northerly Hemisphere ankylosaurs resembled steampunk tank car or element from a Mad Max film , overcompensate in staggering armor and carryingclubson the ends of their tails . Kunbarrasaurus , while armored , resemble patrimonial edition that had only latterly incorporated bones into their hide for defensive intention .
“ The diversity of eubstance armor in ankylosaurs may have been for sexual pick as well forcible protective cover , ” Leahey said to IFLScience . However , she adds that ankylosaurus in North America or Asia had to fight off more fearsome theropods than anything yet find in Australia . Kunbarrasauruses 2 m ( 6.6 feet ) long probably benefit from carrying less system of weights .
CT scans of other ankylosaur have found distinctivelylooping airways . Leahey told IFLScience that Kunbarrasaurus ’s flight path has a single grommet , disagree from other dinosaur but far less elaborate than its northerly congeneric . This complexity has been attributed both to the demand to keep cool when behave so much armor , and for vocalization . Leahey sum that the dinosaur ’s little size of it may have removed the demand for such an luxuriant air - conditioning system of rules , but Australia was also much cooler than North America at the time .
A distinctively Kunbarrasaurian quirkiness is an almost exclusively global internal ear , something antecedently only seen in turtles andtuatara . Most specie ' inner spike are more elongated . Leahey told IFLScience that the common ancestry of polo-neck and ankylosaurs was too far back for this to belike be a common heritage , but that it was not unmortgaged what purpose it served for either species .
Leahey described the specimen as being one of the few ankylosaurus where the skin ivory had not fuse to the skeleton , giving us an “ unobstructed view of the skull . ”
Kunbarra means shield in Mayi , the local indigenous linguistic communication , while the species name refers to the dodo ’s viewfinder Ian Levers .
