Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T05:34:23.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Enigmatic Dinosaur Faunas of Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

John Long*
Affiliation:
The Western Australian Museum, Francis St., Perth, Western Australia 6000
Get access

Abstract

Australia has a scant but significant record of dinosaurs which includes a prosauropod, two or three sauropods, at least four theropods (including carnosaurs and an ornithomimosaur), four hypsilophodontids, an aberrant iguanodont, a primitive thyreophoran (possibly an ankylosaur), and a possible primitive neoceratopsian. Footprint fossils indicate higher taxonomic diversity, including small bipedal ornithopods and coelurosaurs, very large sauropods, large carnosaurs, and a stegosaur. The most diverse dinosaur assemblage, from the Early Cretaceous of Victoria, represents a polar dinosaur community that lived within the Cretaceous Antarctic Circle.

Type
The Dinosaur World
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartholomai, A., 1966. Fossil footprints in Queensland. Australian Natural History, 15: 147150.Google Scholar
Bartholomai, A. and Molnar, R.E., 1981. Muttaburrasaurus, a new iguanodont (Ornithischia: Ornithopoda) dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 20:319349.Google Scholar
Colbert, E.H. and Merrilees, D., 1967. Cretaceous dinosaur footprints from Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 50: 2125.Google Scholar
Coombs, W.P. Jr. and Molnar, R.E., 1981. Sauropods (Reptilia, Saurischia) from the Cretaceous of Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 20: 351373.Google Scholar
Galton, P.M. and Cluver, M.A., 1976. Anchisaurus capensis (Broom) and a revision of the Anchisauridae (Reptilia, Saurischia). Annals of the South African Museum, 69: 121159.Google Scholar
Haubold, H., 1971. Ichnia Amphibiorum et Reptiliorum fossilum. In “Handbuch der Palaeoherpetologie” ed. by Kuhn, O., Vol. 18.Google Scholar
Huene, F. Von, 1932. Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte. Monographs in Geologie und Palöontologie 1: 1361.Google Scholar
Long, J.A., 1991. Dinosaurs of Australia and other animals of the Mesozoic Era. Reed Books, Sydney, 88p.Google Scholar
Long, J.A., 1992a. Cretaceous dinosaur ichnofauna from Broome, Western Australia. The Beagle, Records of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, 9: 262.Google Scholar
Long, J.A., 1992b. First dinosaur bones from Western Australia. The Beagle, Records of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, 9: 2128.Google Scholar
Longman, H.A. 1926. A giant dinosaur from Durham Downs, Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 8: 183194.Google Scholar
Longman, H.A. 1927. The giant dinosaur Rhoetosaurus brownei . Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 9: 118.Google Scholar
Longman, H.A. 1933. A new dinosaur from the Queensland Cretaceous. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 13:133144.Google Scholar
Molnar, R.E., 1980. An ankylosaur (Ornithischia: Reptilia) from the Lower Cretaceous of southern Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 20: 7787.Google Scholar
Molnar, R.E., 1985. Minmi paravertebra. The Minmi, an armoured dinosaur. pp. 172176 In Vickers-Rich, P., Monaghan, J.M., Baird, R.F. and Rich, T.H. (eds), Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australasia, Pioneer design Studio, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Molnar, R.E., 1991. Fossil reptiles in Australia. In Vickers-Rich, P., Monaghan, J. M., Baird, R. F. and Rich, T. H. (eds), Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australasia, Pioneer design Studio, Melbourne, 605702.Google Scholar
Molnar, R.E., 1994. Minmi . All tanked up and ready to grow. Dinonews, 7: 36.Google Scholar
Molnar, R.E., Flannery, T.F. and Rich, T.H., 1981. An allosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Victoria, Australia. Alcheringa, 5: 141146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molnar, R.E., Flannery, T.F. and Rich, T.H., 1985. Aussie Allosaurus after all. Journal of Paleontology, 59:15111513.Google Scholar
Molnar, R.E. and Galton, P.M., 1986. Hypsilophodontid dinosaurs from Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia. Geobios, 19: 231239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molnar, R.E. and Pledge, N.S., 1980. A new theropod dinosaur from South Australia. Alcheringa, 4:281287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paladino, F. V. and Spotila, J.R., 1992. Dinosaurs and leatherbacks - standing up to the cold. Australian Natural History 23: 936943.Google Scholar
Rich, P.V., Rich, T.H., Wagstaff, B.E., McEwen -Mason, J., Douthitt, C.B., Gregory, R.T. and Felton, E.A., 1988. Evidence for low temperatures and biologic diversity in Cretaceous high latitudes of Australia. Science, 242: 14031406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rich, T.H. and Rich, P.V., 1989. Polar dinosaurs and biotas of the Early Cretaceous of southeastern Australia. National Geographic Research 5: 1553.Google Scholar
Rich, T.H. and Vickers-Rich, P.V., 1994. Neoceratopsians and ornithomimosaurs: dinosaurs of Gondwana origin? Research and Exploration (National Geographic Society) 10 (1): 129131.Google Scholar
Seeley, H.G., 1891. On Agrosaurus macgillvrayi, a saurischian reptile from the NE-coast of Australia. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 47: 164165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thulborn, R.A. 1985. Rhoetosaurus brownei. The giant Queensland dinosaur. Pp. 166171 in “Kadimakara. Extinct vertebrates of Australia” ed. by Rich, P.V. and Van Tets, G. Pioneer Design Studio, Lilydale, Victoria.Google Scholar
Thulborn, R.A. and Wade, M., 1979. Dinosaur stampede in the Cretaceous of Queensland. Lethaia, 12: 275279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thulborn, R.A. and Wade, M., 1984. Dinosaur trackways in the Winton Formation (Mid-Cretaceous) of Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 21: 413518.Google Scholar
Vickers-Rich, P. and Rich, T.H., 1991. The dinosaurs of winter. Natural History, April 1991: 3239.Google Scholar
Welles, S.P., 1983. Allosaurus (Saurischia, Theropoda) not yet in Australia. Journal of Paleontology, 57: 196.Google Scholar
Woodward, A.S., 1906. A tooth of Ceratodus and a dinosaurian claw from the Lower Jurassic of Victoria, Australia. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, ser. 7 (18): 13.Google Scholar