Mary, Elliot's companion

Classification
Sauropod dinosaur

Age
98-95 million years old

Parts of the skeleton collected so far
Right tibia, right radius, part of the right humerus, thoracic and possibly cervical vertebrae, and numerous rib fragments

Estimated length
10-12 metres

Height at hip
2 metres

Discovery site
On a property near the outback town of Winton, central-western Queensland, Australia

Notes

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

Mary represents the second sauropod found at the Elliot site. Although some of her bones were discovered alongside those of Elliot in 1999 by Dave Elliott and during subsequent digs in 2002 and 2003, it was not until they were fully prepared that her presence was recognised. Based on the bones that have been recovered so far, she appears to have been 10-12 metres long ? about half the size of Elliot. It's unclear if Mary was the same type of sauropod as Elliot, but at this stage it seems very likely.

It's still unclear what caused Elliot and Mary's deaths, but whatever happened, both carcasses ended up on the banks of a billabong or on the bend of a meandering river, somewhere in the middle of a vast, heavily forested coastal plain. It is the first time that the bones from two sauropod skeletons have been found together at a fossil site in Australia.