Muttaburrasaurus
Muttaburrasaurus | |
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Mounted skeleton | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | †Ornithischia |
Clade: | †Neornithischia |
Clade: | †Ornithopoda |
Clade: | †Rhabdodontomorpha |
Genus: | †Muttaburrasaurus Bartholomai & Molnar, 1981 |
Species: | †M. langdoni
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Binomial name | |
†Muttaburrasaurus langdoni Bartholomai & Molnar, 1981
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Muttaburrasaurus was a
The dinosaur was selected from twelve candidates to become the official fossil emblem of the State of Queensland.[3][4]
Discovery
The species was initially described from a partial skeleton found by grazier Doug Langdon in 1963 at Rosebery Downs Station beside
The
Some teeth have been discovered further north, near Hughenden,[6] and south at Lightning Ridge,[6] in northwestern New South Wales. At Lightning Ridge there have been found opalised teeth and a scapula that may be from a Muttaburrasaurus. A skull, known as the "Dunluce Skull", specimen QM F14921, was discovered by John Stewart-Moore and 14-year-old Robert Walker on Dunluce Station, between Hughenden and Richmond in 1987. It originates from somewhat older layers of the Allaru Mudstone and was considered by Molnar to be a separate, yet unnamed species, a Muttaburrasaurus sp.[6] The same area produced two fragmentary skeletons in 1989. There have also been isolated teeth and bones found at Iona Station southeast of Hughenden.
Reconstructed skeleton casts of Muttaburrasaurus, sponsored by Kellogg Company, have been put on display at a number of museums, including the Queensland Museum, Flinders Discovery Centre and National Dinosaur Museum in Australia.
Description
Muttaburrasaurus was about 8 metres (26 ft) and weighed around 2.8 metric tons (3.1 short tons).[7] The femur of the holotype has a length of 1,015 millimetres (40.0 in).
Whether Muttaburrasaurus is capable of quadrupedal movement has been debated; it was originally thought to be an "iguanodontid"; thought recent studies indicate a rhabdodont position. Ornithopods this basal were incapable of quadrupedal movement. Originally reconstructing Muttaburrasaurus with a thumb spike, Molnar later doubted such a structure was present.[6] The foot was long and broad, with four toes.
The skull of Muttaburrasaurus was rather flat, with a triangular cross-section when seen from above; the back of the head is broad but the snout pointed. The snout includes a strongly enlarged, hollow, upward-bulging nasal muzzle that might have been used to produce distinctive calls or for display purposes. However, as no fossilised nasal tissue has been found, this remains conjectural. This so-called bulla nasalis was shorter in the older Muttaburrasaurus sp., as is shown by the Dunluce Skull. The top section of the bulla of the holotype has not been preserved, but at least the second skull has a rounded profile.[6]
Classification
Molnar originally assigned Muttaburrasaurus to the
The following cladogram was recovered by Dieudonné and colleagues in 2016:[10]
Iguanodontia
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However, in 2024, Fonseca and colleagues considered Muttaburrasaurus to be outside Rhabdodontomorpha, and instead classified it as a member of the Gondwanan clade Elasmaria, alongside Fostoria dhimbangunmal.[11]
Palaeobiology
Muttaburrasaurus had very powerful jaws equipped with shearing
References
- ^ a b Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2012) Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages, Winter 2011 Appendix.
- ^ PMID 21124919.
- ^ "Queensland's new State fossil emblem". Queensland Government. The State of Queensland. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
- ^ "The dinosaur Queenslanders dig". Media Statements. The State of Queensland. 22 October 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
- ^ Bartholomai, A.; Molnar, R.E. (1981). "Muttaburrasaurus: a new Iguanodontid (Ornithischia:Ornithopoda) dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Queensland". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 20 (2): 319–349.
- ^ a b c d e Molnar, Ralph E. (1996). "Observations on the Australian ornithopod dinosaur, Muttaburrasaurus"". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 39 (3): 639–652.
- ^ Paul, G.S. (2010). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press. p. 286.
- PMID 22629328.
- doi:10.26879/702. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
- PMID 27333279.
- .
- ^ Molnar, R.E. (1995). A. Sun; Y. Wang (eds.). Possible convergence in the jaw mechanisms of ceratopians and Muttaburrasaurus. Sixth Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems and Biota, short papers. Beijing: China Ocean Press. pp. 115–117.
Further reading
- Cannon, Libby (2006). "The Muttaburra Lizard". Australian Age of Dinosaurs (4): 16–31.