In Depth
At the time of its description, Australotitan is thought to possibly represent the largest dinosaur known from the Australian continent. However, Australotitan has only been described from partial limb and hip bones, and while the femur of Australotitan suggests that this dinosaur was comparable to other titanosaurian dinosaurs such a Dreadnoughtus and Futalognkosaurus in terms of size, full body length for Australotitan remains a big question with no certain answer.
The first fossils of Australotitan were recovered from the Winton Formation, one of the most prominent fossil bearing locations in Australia. Another titanosaurian dinosaur named Diamantinasaurus from the same formation has been considered to be a close relative of Australotitan. Further reading
- A new giant sauropod, Australotitan cooperensis gen. et sp. nov., from the mid-Cretaceous of Australia. - PeerJ. 9: e11317. - Scott A. Hocknull1 & Melville Wilkinson, Rochelle A. Lawrence, Vladislav Konstantinov, Stuart Mackenzie, Robyn Mackenzie - 2021.
- Second specimen of the Late Cretaceous Australian sauropod dinosaur Diamantinasaurus matildae provides new anatomical information on the skull and neck of early titanosaurs. - Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society: zlaa173. - Stephen F Poropat, Martin Kundr�t, Philip D Mannion, Paul Upchurch, Travis R Tischler, David A Elliott - 2021.
