Browsing by Author "Rich, TH"

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    First elaphrosaurine theropod dinosaur (Ceratosauria: Noasauridae) from Australia — a cervical vertebra from the early Cretaceous of Victoria
    (Elsevier, 2020-08) Poropat, SF; Pentland, AH; Duncan, RJ; Bevitt, JJ; Vickers-Rich, P; Rich, TH
    Elaphrosaurinae is an enigmatic clade of gracile ceratosaurian theropod dinosaurs known from the Late Jurassic of Africa (Elaphrosaurus bambergi) and Asia (e.g., Limusaurus inextricabilis), and the early Late Cretaceous of Argentina (Huinculsaurus montesi). Elaphrosaurinae is often placed within Noasauridae as the sister taxon to Noasaurinae, a clade of small-bodied theropods that lived in South America, Africa, Madagascar and India throughout much of the Cretaceous. Herein, we report the first evidence of Elaphrosaurinae from Australia: a nearly complete middle cervical vertebra from the upper Lower Cretaceous (lower Albian) Eumeralla Formation of Cape Otway, Victoria, Australia. The fact that this site would have been situated at ~76°S towards the end of the Early Cretaceous (~110–107 Ma) implies that elaphrosaurines were capable of tolerating near-polar palaeoenvironments, whereas its age indicates that elaphrosaurines persisted in Australia until at least the late Early Cretaceous. The new Australian elaphrosaurine, in tandem with the recently described Huinculsaurus montesi from the Cenomanian–Turonian of Argentina, implies that the spatiotemporal distribution of Elaphrosaurinae has heretofore been greatly underestimated. Historic confusion of elaphrosaurines with coelurosaurs, especially ornithomimosaurs, coupled with our generally poor understanding of noasaurid evolution, might explain the apparent dearth of fossils of this theropod clade worldwide. © 2020 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V.
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    A new Cretaceous fossil mammal locality from the Bass Coast of southeastern Australia
    (Taylor & Francis, 2022-10-20) Rich, TH; Lowery, M; Hall, M; Kool, L; Bevitt, J; White, M; Vickers-Rich, P
    Mesozoic mammals from the polar regions of Australian Gondwana are exceptionally rare. The recovery of a partial jaw attributable to the australosphenid Ausktribosphenos nyktos from a new locality along the Bass Coast of Victoria is, therefore, significant because it comes from an uppermost Barremian to lowermost Aptian grit with abundant plant material that differs lithologically from other previously productive laminated sandstone deposits. We interpret this as evidence for a floodplain habitat that was distant from local water bodies. The identification of a new Cretaceous mammal locality in Australia highlights the exciting prospects for future fossil discoveries. © 2024 Informa UK Limited