Minmi (Minmi paravertebra)
Minmi.
Illustration: A Musser © Australian Museum.
Lived: 100-95 million years ago (early Cretaceous)
Size: Length (head to tail): 3m
Description: Minmi was an ankylosaur - a type of dinosaur equipped with bony armour - but possibly more primitive than most.
Compared with other ankylosaurs, Minmi had long legs and extra bony plates alongside its backbones. These bony plates may have been for extra muscles to attach to, and this extra muscle power may have made Minmi a fairly speedy runner. Other ankylosaurs moved quite slowly; Minmi was possibly the fastest moving ankylosaur in the world.
Minmi lived on the floodplains and in woodlands, eating soft, low-growing plants.
The closest living relatives of Minmi are birds.
Fossils: Minmi fossils have been found at two sites in central Queensland. Fossils for 90 per cent of Minmi's skeleton have been found, making it the most complete dinosaur skeleton found in Australia.
Minmi bones were the first ankylosaur fossils to be found in the Southern Hemisphere.
Did you know?: Some Minmi fossils have been found in parts of Queensland that formed a large island that was separate from the rest of Australia when Minmi was alive.
