The largest dinosaur discovered to date in Australia, Elliot the sauropod, did not die alone.
In his last hours, 98-95 million years ago, Elliot had a companion, a second sauropod whom Australian scientists have named “Mary”.
A combined University of Queensland and Queensland Museum team today announced the finding following thorough examination of the fossil evidence from a dig near Winton, central-western Queensland, earlier this year.
Minister for the Arts Matt Foley and University of Queensland Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Margaret Gardner congratulated the research team on the discovery.
“This is another great coup for the project ream, which reaffirms the importance of Queensland as the home of Australia’s largest and most important dinosaur finds,” Mr Foley said.
Professor Gardner said it was a spectacular example of scientific expertise and community partnership leading to a research outcome of international significance.
Sauropods were gigantic plant-eating dinosaurs. They typically had extremely long necks and tails, proportionately small heads, and four elephantine legs that, on even the smallest ones, were as thick as tree trunks. Some of the better-known sauropods include Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus (previously known as ‘Brontosaurus’).
University of Queensland researcher and project team leader Dr Steve Salisbury said today that the fossil locality was the first dinosaur site in Australia in which the remains of two sauropods had been found together.
“It’s still unclear what caused their deaths, but whatever happened, both carcasses ended up on the banks of a billabong or on the bend of a meandering river, somewhere in the middle of a vast, heavily forested coastal plain,” Dr Salisbury said.
Careful examination of the sediment in which Elliot and Mary’s bones were found has also revealed the remains of several other animals, providing the palaeontologist with a detailed snapshot of the world that these giant dinosaurs inhabited.
“Among the smaller fossils associated with the sauropod bones are the teeth of medium-sized meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods. These particular theropods would have been slightly larger than the ‘raptors’ in Jurassic Park. There are also numerous teeth from dwarf crocodilians. Both the theropod and the crocodilian teeth are broken off at their bases, suggesting that they may have been lost while these animals were scavenging on the sauropod carcasses. It also looks like we’ve found the remains of some of the turtles that inhabited the waters in which the sauropods died.”
While Elliot is estimated to have been 16-21 metres long, 3.5-4 metres high at the rump, and weighed as much 22-28 tonnes, Mary was much smaller. “Based on the bones that have been recovered so far, it looks like she was about half the size of Elliot – about 10-12 metres long,” Dr Salisbury said.
“It’s still unclear if Mary was the same type of sauropod as Elliot, but at this stage I think it’s a safe bet to assume she was. Who knows, she may even have been his mate.”
Dr Salisbury said that Mary’s remains had been found in a 10 x 40 metre excavation site that had been investigated over the past two years following an invitation by land-owner and grazier, Dave Elliott. Mr Elliott first invited a team of Queensland Museum palaeontologists to his property in September 2001, after finding remains of Elliot in 1999 while out mustering sheep.
A follow-up excavation in 2002, involving more than 40 volunteers, unearthed many more bones. At the time, it was thought that most of them belonged to Elliot, but it has since become apparent that the majority belong to Mary.
Dr Salisbury said that the team had always assumed they were only digging for one animal. But inconsistencies in the size of some of the bones proved to be a puzzle. It was only after extensive preparatory work in the laboratories of the Queensland Museum that Dr Salisbury felt confident enough to declare that they were dealing with the bones of at least two animals. The results of this year’s dig have confirmed this idea.
“The 2003 dig produced much more than any of us anticipated,” said Dr Salisbury. “After two weeks of extensive excavation, we ended up with 27 plaster jackets, within which were numerous large bones. Most of these appear to belong to Mary, although we can’t really be sure until they’ve been fully prepared in the laboratory. It’s a slow process, but considering the rarity of dinosaur bones in Australia, we can’t afford to take any risks. This type of palaeontology is all about patience.”
The excavation of Elliot and Mary will continue next year as part of The University of Queensland’s Winton Dinosaur Project, which has received a three-year grant from the Australian Research Council Linkage – Projects scheme.
Through the scheme, Dr Salisbury, who is a Postdoctoral Fellow in UQ’s School of Life Sciences, and formerly of the Queensland Museum, will continue to carry out research on Elliot and Mary. Other vertebrate fossils from the same rock unit in which these remains were found, the Winton Formation, will also be studied. Dr Salisbury and his colleagues at the Queensland Museum are now seeking expressions of interest from the public for 10 places available for paying participants to attend the 2004 dig.
Dr Salisbury said that Elliot was named after Dave Elliott, although the dinosaur has one less “t” to its name.
Mary has been named in honour of Dr Mary Wade, a former Curator of Palaeontology at Queensland Museum, now living at Hughenden, who, along with Associate Professor Tony Thulborn of UQ’s School of Life Sciences, described the world’s only known dinosaur stampede at Lark Quarry, 115 km southwest of Winton, in the late 70s and early 80s. The trackways are exposed in a small quarry, and include over 3000 footprints made by at least 150 individual dinosaurs 98-95 million years ago.
“Our work at Winton is now bringing some faces to the footprints at Lark Quarry,” Dr Salisbury said.
“Dr Wade has made many important contributions to vertebrate palaeontology in Queensland,” explained Dr Alex Cook, Senior Curator of Palaeontology Geosciences at the Queensland Museum.
“In some way or another she has been involved in nearly every major dinosaur discovery that has taken place in western Queensland over the last 30 years. Many of the sauropod finds made in the Winton District, including Elliot, would never have come to light if it were not for her efforts. We have a lot to thank her for.”
Professor Gardner thanked Mr Elliott and his family, along with the people of Winton who had enthusiastically supported the research, and the three key industry partners for the Winton Dinosaur Project: the Queensland Museum, Land Rover Australia and Winton Shire Council.
The Queensland Museum has made a strong commitment in the form of both cash and in-kind contributions. Numerous specialists within the Museum’s Geosciences section, including Dr Alex Cook and Scott Hocknull, are committing time and expertise to assist with various aspects of the project, and specialist facilities and equipment have been made available.
“There aren’t many towns in Queensland where dinosaurs play such an important role as they do in Winton,” explained Scott Hocknull, Assistant Curator of Palaeontology Geosciences at the Queensland Museum.
“These digs and others like them have broad community support, and it’s clear to us that they will have huge benefits for the economic development of the town. Dinosaur finds have major spin-off benefits for the outback tourism industry, and the Museum is already helping the locals to develop regional tourist displays that will correspond to these new finds.”
Land Rover Australia is helping the search for dinosaurs like Elliot and Mary by providing Dr Salisbury with 4WD vehicles for use in fieldwork and exploration. For this year’s campaign they provided the team with a Discovery Td5 and a Defender Td5, in addition to the ‘Dino-Defender’, a Defender Td5 which Land Rover lent to the Queensland Museum in 2001.
Winton Shire Council is also helping through a yearly cash contribution that is alleviating some of the cost associated with freight and field consumables. In-kind support from Winton Shire Council includes field equipment, mobile work vehicles and council vehicles (including earth-moving machinery and drivers).
“I doubt we could have achieved what we have without the support of our industry Partners,” said Dr Salisbury. “This is exactly the type of cooperation we need if we’re ever going to open the door on the world of Australian dinosaurs. One thing is for certain, though: they’re not going to be like anything that’s ever been encountered overseas.”
For background information about the Winton Dinosaur Project, visit www.uq.edu.au/dinosaurs
For further information about the 2001 and 2002 Elliot digs, visit www.qmuseum.qld.gov.au/features/dinosaurs/elliot/index.asp
Images of Mary and Elliot, and high resolution stills and video footage from this year’s dig can be downloaded from: https://www.uq.edu.au/news/press/press-gallery.php
University of Queensland Media contact: Jan King on 0413 601 248
Queensland Museum Media Contact: Sarah Perrott on 0417 741 710.
Ministerial Media contact: Megan Tudehope on 322 51765 or Russ Morgan on 0408 722 025
