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Finding the rare remains of dinosaurs that roamed the Earth tens of millions of years ago is obviously not easy. Find the remains of completely new dinosaurs that no one even knew existed? It's even harder, but researchers in Victoria, Australia, have done just that, and the recently documented herbivore would probably have been pretty adorable to see in person.
As detailed in a new report in the Journal of Paleontology, Galleonosaurus dorisae was a little plant eater that was walking around Australia today about 125 million years ago and was probably using its small size and its awesome legs to evade predators. the most formidable of the time.
The researchers believe that the dinosaur the size of a mug, which was about as big as a modern wallaby, would have flourished in the former wooded area that once existed between the landmasses that are today Australia and Antarctica. This valley would have provided abundant resources to tiny dinosaurs while protecting them from larger predators.
The remains of this new species have been found fossilized in a layer of volcanic sediment. Researchers believe that volcanic debris comes much further east from where the bones were found and were washed west by rivers.
"This country has now disappeared," said in a statement the main author, Matthew Herne, of the University of New England. "But as" time travelers, "we have snapshots of this remarkable world through the rocks and fossils exposed along the Victoria coast."
Discovering the differences in the evolution of dinosaurs in different regions and knowing the evolutionary paths taken by different species can help researchers determine what the Earth looked like several million years ago. Finding species on a now isolated land mass, such as Australia, then finding the same species or similar species in other parts of the world also helps scientists determine when the landmass divides.
Source of Image: Matthew C Herne, et al.
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