Australian Allosaur (not yet named)
Australian Allosaur.
Illustration: A Musser © Australian Museum.
Lived: 110 million years ago (early Cretaceous)
Size: Length (head to tail): 5-6m
Description: The Australian Allosaur belongs to a group of meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods. Like other theropods it was bipedal, meaning that it stood on its two hind legs. This Australian dinosaur was similar to the terrifying Allosaurus, which lived elsewhere in the world. The closest living relatives of the Australian Allosaur are birds. Birds are actually the surviving descendants of a group of theropod dinosaurs.
Fossils: The Australian Allosaur is known from a fossil ankle bone found at Cape Patterson in Victoria in 1981.
Did you know?: Fossils of theropod dinosaurs are rare in Australia, so even the single ankle bone known for the Australian Allosaur is very important.
