100 mln-year-old dinosaur fossil found in Australia

An Australian farmer has found the remains of a 100 million-year-old dinosaur on his property.

The giant marine predator dominated Australia's great inland sea and Robert Hacon said he was very surprised to discover such a rare creature.

Hacon, from Queensland, in northern Australia, told the Brisbane Times on Tuesday he dug up the 1.6m jaw of a Kronosaurus Queenslandicus, an 11m-long apex predator with a crocodile-like head and a body with four powerful flippers.

The farmer donated the fossil to the Kronosaurus Korner Museum in nearby Richmond and the museum's curator, Dr Timothy Holland, said the discovery was remarkable.

"The specimen represents the most complete mandible of a Kronosaurus Queenslandicus in the world, with most other examples being weathered, crushed or incomplete," he said.

"The scary thing is that this creature wasn't even an adult when it died -- it still had a lot of growing to do." 
   Xinhua - china.org.cn
21/4/15
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