Elliot, Australia's largest dinosaur

Classification
Sauropod dinosaur

Age
98-95 million years old

Parts of the skeleton collected so far
Right femur and portions of several ribs

Estimated length
16-21 metres

Height at hip
3.5 metres
Discovery site
On a property near the outback town of Winton, central-western Queensland, Australia

A schematic reconstruction of Elliot based on a generalised titanosauriform sauropod. Collected bones that can confidently be referred to his skeleton are shown in yellow. © 2003 Steve Salisbury.

Notes
Elliot was a gigantic sauropod dinosaur that lived almost 100 million years ago in what is now western Queensland. As a herbivore, he probably spent most of his time browsing in the forests on the river plains that surrounded the inland sea that covered most of Queensland and central Australia during the Early Cretaceous. His immense size meant he had few predators. Even the large meat-eating theropods that roamed the ancient antipodean forests are unlikely to have troubled him. The tracks of these theropods and some of the other dinosaurs that inhabited Elliot's world are preserved in stone at Lark Quarry Conservation Park.

The remains of Elliot were discovered in 1999 by his namesake, Dave Elliott, a Winton grazier. In 2001, a team from the Queensland Museum investigated the site, and with the help of Dave and his family, unearthed more bones. In 2002, Dr Steve Salisbury (now at The University of Queensland), Dr Alex Cook and Scott Hocknull led a major excavation to the site, enlisting the help of over 40 volunteers. This excavation continued in 2003 as part of The University of Queensland's Winton Dinosaur Project. The discovery represents physical evidence of the largest dinosaur skeleton of any kind ever found in Australia.