Classification
Sauropod dinosaur
Age
98-95 million
years old
Parts of the skeleton collected so far
Right femur
and portions of several ribs
Estimated length
16-21
metres
Height at hip
3.5 metres
Discovery
site
On a property near the outback town of Winton, central-western
Queensland, Australia
|
|
A schematic reconstruction of Elliot based on a generalised
titanosauriform sauropod. Collected bones that can confidently be referred to
his skeleton are shown in yellow. © 2003 Steve Salisbury. |
Notes
Elliot was a gigantic sauropod
dinosaur that lived almost 100 million years ago in what is now western
Queensland. As a herbivore, he probably spent most of his time browsing in the
forests on the river plains that surrounded the inland sea that covered most of
Queensland and central Australia during the Early Cretaceous. His immense size meant
he had few predators. Even the large meat-eating theropods that roamed the
ancient antipodean forests are unlikely to have troubled him. The tracks of
these theropods and some of the other dinosaurs that inhabited Elliot's world
are preserved in stone at Lark
Quarry Conservation Park.
The remains of Elliot were discovered in
1999 by his namesake, Dave Elliott, a Winton grazier. In 2001,
a team from the Queensland Museum investigated the site, and with the help of
Dave and his family, unearthed more bones. In 2002,
Dr Steve Salisbury (now at The University of Queensland), Dr Alex Cook and Scott
Hocknull led a major excavation to the site, enlisting the help of over 40
volunteers. This excavation continued in 2003 as part of The
University of Queensland's Winton Dinosaur Project. The discovery represents
physical evidence of the largest dinosaur skeleton of any kind ever found in
Australia.