New Queensland Dinosaur Fossils (and a Victorian teaser)

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1465753.htm 

Dozens of dinosaur bones have been unearthed in western Queensland in
what is being described as one of the state's most successful fossil
digs.

Scientists from the Queensland Museum and volunteers from the Australian
Age of Dinosaurs worked on the two-week dig near Winton. 

One of the coordinators David Elliott says some very large bones were
discovered, well-preserved in solid rock. 
"I suppose probably one of our most successful yet. It's a discovery
that was only made in March this year so it's a totally new site,
totally new dinosaur. 

"It's a saurapod [sic], very large one, a lot of material. We know
there'd be a couple of dozen bones there at least."

----

Since material from "Elliot" the ?titanosauriform are now on display in
Queensland, I wonder whether a description will soon be forth-coming?
Even a 'Brief Notes...' paper would be good - both Minmi and
Muttaburrasaurus were first published as 'brief notes' years before
their detailed descriptions were published.

It seems that sauropod material is coming thick and fast from the Black
Soils now... or at least, by Australian standards! It would be
interesting to see whether they are all from closely related fauna
(which might indicate that Oz had a low sauropod diversity for some
reason).

In other news, the 2005 Flat Rocks site report has just made its way
into my eager hands. I've only had time to scan it briefly, however the
?monotreme humerus found long ago at Dinosaur Cove in Victoria is about
to be formally named. More on this later...

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist         http://heretichides.soffiles.com
Melbourne, Australia        http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
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