New small-bodied ornithopod dinosaur from southern Victoria

11 January 2018
The late Dave Pickering at Eric The Red West
The late Dave Pickering at Eric The Red West. (Herne)

A fossil discovered a decade ago in south-eastern Australia is giving fresh insight into the diversity of dinosaurs that inhabited the rift valley that once existed between Australia and Antarctica 113 million years ago.

University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences alumnus Dr Matt Herne and colleagues have christened the turkey-sized herbivore Diluvicorsor pickeringi, which means 'Pickering's flood-runner'.  The species name honors the late David Pickering, who was the Collection Manager for Vertebrate Palaeontology at Museums Victoria. The genus name relates to the fact that the fossil of the presumably fast running dinosaur was buried along with flood-transported tree stumps, logs and branches at the base of what was once a powerful river.

Read the full UQ News story here.

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