Wintonotitan
A titanosauriform sauropod from the Late Cretaceous of Australia.
Wintonotitan is a genus of titanosauriform dinosaur from the Cenomanian-aged Winton Formation of Australia. It is known from partial postcranial remains, and its name means 'Winton titan.'
Quick Facts
- Species
- wattsi
Facts from the source article.
Description and history
Fossils now known as Wintonotitan were first found in 1974 by Keith Watts and initially assigned to Austrosaurus sp. The type specimen, QMF 7292, includes a left shoulder blade, much of the forelimbs, vertebrae, ribs, and other fragments. Scott Hocknull and colleagues established QMF 7292 as the holotype of Wintonotitan in 2009, naming the type species W. wattsi after the discoverer. Hocknull considered Austrosaurus mckillopi a nomen dubium.
Palaeoecology
QMF 7292 was found about 60 km northwest of Winton near Elderslie Station, in sandstone interpreted as a point bar of a river. A second specimen, QMF 10916, consisting of isolated tail vertebrae, came from Chorregan. The site also yielded fish fragments, a theropod tooth, and plant fossils including woody stems, cones, and leaves. The Winton Formation fauna included bivalves, gastropods, insects, the lungfish Metaceratodus, turtles, the crocodilian Isisfordia, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs such as Australovenator, Diamantinasaurus, and unnamed ankylosaurians and ornithopods. Wintonotitan bones are less robust than those of Diamantinasaurus. Like other sauropods, Wintonotitan was a large quadrupedal herbivore.
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