Titanosaurs could get into Australia from South America via Antarctica.
Australian scientists reported the discovery of a new form of a huge herbivorous dinosaur of sawasawa (Savannasaurus) belonging to the family of titanosaurs.
The discovery suggests that the titanosaurs, which appeared first in South America, could get to other continents in a period of “global warming” began about 105 million years ago.
Australian palaeontologist David Elliott discovered the remains of one dinosaur that lived on the Australian continent 95-98 million years ago, in Queensland in 2006. According to scientists, this dinosaur was like a modern giraffe, and its body length was about 15 meters.
During the excavations carried out by scientists and volunteers, Elliot found several bones belonging to another dinosaur, this species has received the name of Diamantinasaurus matildae.
According to scientists, two dinosaurs, whose bones were discovered by Elliott, belong to a group of dinosaurs, the sauropods, have little compared to the overall size of the skull, massive body and long neck.
A group of sauropods, in turn, belongs to the genus of titanosaurs – the largest herbivorous dinosaurs.
The fact that Australia is 95-100 million years ago lived members of the genus of titanosaurs have helped scientists come to the conclusion that these large herbivorous dinosaurs were common at the time across the planet.
And their spread has occurred not earlier than 105 million years ago, when there was a natural barrier to their spread from South America to other continents.
However, the findings of Elliott proved that titanosaurs might have spread throughout the Earth sooner than 100 million years ago – when there have been changes in the climate and global warming has begun.
According to the researchers, at this time Australia and South America had land connection with Antarctica. Thus, titanosaurs could get into Australia from South America via Antarctica.
