Muttaburrasaurus

Muttaburrasaurus is a genus of herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur that lived in what is now north-eastern Australia during the Albian-Cenomanian stages of the Cretaceous period. It has been recovered in some analyses as a member of the iguanodontian clade Rhabdodontomorpha, but more recent research has suggested a more basal position in the ornithopod family tree, potentially as a member of Elasmaria. After Kunbarrasaurus, it is Australia's most completely known dinosaur from skeletal remains. It was named after Muttaburra, the site in Queensland, Australia, where it was found. The dinosaur was selected from twelve candidates to become the official fossil emblem of the State of Queensland.

Muttaburrasaurus

SandwichCafe · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ElasmariaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithopoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia
Length
7 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 13 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 106.3 Mya and 93.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 3 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 3 occurrencesLate Cretaceous106–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences104–104 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences103–103 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106.8 Mya93.4 Mya

3 occurrences of Muttaburrasaurus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

3 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Allaru Mudstone — 20.88°S, 143.80°EAllaru Mudstone — 20.97°S, 144.38°EMackunda — 22.67°S, 144.60°E

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The named rock units Muttaburrasaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Muttaburrasaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Muttaburrasaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

5 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Muttaburrasaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Muttaburrasaurus

Credit
SandwichCafe
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
PeePmono
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itElasmaria through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bartholomai and Molnar 1981