VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA — Five years after the discovery of a pterosaur fossil, a PhD student in Australia noticed that it had been mislabeled and that it actually belonged to a rare dinosaur called Elaphrosaurus.
Paleontologists at Australia's Swinburne University of Technology discovered they had mistakenly identified a fossil as the bone of an ancient flying reptile called pterosaur, but it actually belonged to a rare dinosaur called elaphrosaur. This is the first elaphrosaur found in Australia.
Citing Stephen Poropat, the lead author of the study, The Guardian reports that only three other elaphrosaurs species have been found in Tanzania, China and Argentina.
The elaphrosaur was part of the theropod family, which includes predators like the Tyrannosaurus Rex and velociraptors. It was roughly as tall as a small Emu and measures 2 meters from its head to the end of its tail."
According to the research published in the journal Gondwana Research, the elaphrosaur the team discovered lived during the cretaceous period. At this time, Australia's land was located in the Arctic Circle.
Researchers believe that the elaphrosaurs may have lived in a habitat containing a diverse variety of plants and trees such as conifers, gingkos, ferns, horsetails, conifers, and flowering plants.
