New dinosaur species found in Australia among world’s biggest

The Australotitan cooperensis, part of the titanosaur family, lived about 100 million years ago and was up to 6.5 metres high and 30 metres long

The bones were uncovered 15 years ago but it has only just been confirmed as a new species, and Australia’s biggest dinosaur

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This simulated image shows an Australotitan cooperensis. Australian palaeontologists have unveiled a new species of giant sauropod dinosaur, which is the largest skeletal remains of a dinosaur ever to be discovered in Australia. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:15pm, 8 Jun 2021Updated: 9:15pm, 8 Jun 2021

A gigantic dinosaur discovered in Australia’s outback has been identified as a new species and recognised as one of the largest to ever roam the Earth, according to palaeontologists.

The Australotitan cooperensis, part of the titanosaur family that lived about 100 million years ago, has finally been named and described 15 years after its bones were first uncovered.

It is estimated to have stood at 5-6.5 metres (16-21 feet) high and measured 25-30 metres (82-98 feet) in length – which would make it Australia’s biggest dinosaur.

Researchers dig for dinosaur fossils in Cooper Creek, western Queensland, where the fossils were discovered in 2007. Photo: AFP

“Based on the preserved limb size comparisons, this new titanosaur is estimated to be in the top five largest in the world,” said Robyn Mackenzie, a director of the Eromanga Natural History Museum.

The fossilised bones were found on Mackenzie’s family farm in 2006 about 1,000km (620 miles) west of Brisbane in the Eromanga Basin and nicknamed “Cooper”.