Artist's recreation of the dicynodont uncovered in Tasmania.
Credit: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
HOBART: The fossilised bones of a creature the size of a bull with tusks more than 10 cm in length and a horny beak have been uncovered in Tasmania.
A team of researchers from the Queensland Museum, the University of Tasmania in Hobart and La Trobe University in Victoria have described the first dicynodont bones to be found in Tasmania.
Dicynodonts were large, herbivorous mammals that lived around about 250 million years ago, and are the distant ancestors of modern mammals. Their bones of these stocky creatures, whose name literally means 'two dog tooth', have been found on every continent on Earth, but this specimen is only the second found in Australia of this age.
"Dicynodonts have been found in every other continent, including Antarctica. It is a mystery as to why so few bones were found in Australia, but this new find fills an important gap in our knowledge of these mammal-like reptiles and where they lived," said Queensland Museum head of geosciences Andrew Rozefelds, a former deputy director collections and research at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery of the find described in the current issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology.
Largest Australian dicynodont specimen
According to Rozefelds, dicynodonts were large and bizarre-looking creatures that lived before the age of the dinosaurs. "The newly described bone is part of a skull and a partial tusk, and is the largest specimen to be found in Australia," he said. "These fossils very clearly show that large dicynodonts were indeed in Australia, as well as elsewhere in the world.
Sedimentology expert Stuart Bull from the University of Tasmania said the fossils were found at a site on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania, dated at about 250 million years. "Beautifully preserved amphibian skulls and the occasional lungfish bone have also been found near the site," Bull said.
Unravelling dicynodont's secrets
The Tasmanian fossil site was discovered in 2007 by Hobart couple Bob and Penny Tyson while walking along the coast. The bones found in Australia are fragmentary so researchers are not sure which group of dicynodonts they are related to.
The researchers said this new find as well as fossils from Queensland were helping to unravel the secrets of the dicynodont. "Two other fragments of bone, of a similar age, were found in Queensland in 1983," Rozefelds said.
"A remarkable discovery in 2003, also from Queensland, although from much younger sediments, has provided startling evidence that dicynodonts may have survived longer in Australia than anywhere else in the world.
Shoebox full of bones
Rozefelds said that when you consider that these animals were the size of a bull, it is surprising that all the bones that have been found in Australia so far would fit into a small shoebox.
"There is still much more to learn about these amazing creatures," he said. "It is tantalising to know that there must be more complete specimens to be found and how little we still know about the history of life in Australia."
One of the many mysteries is the species' very obvious tusks and their use which has led to much speculation, with researchers suggesting theories such as them being used for digging up plants to sexual differences between males and females. The specimens are stored at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
With the University of Tasmania
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y consedered it important when we know that it is live long time ago .
tell some gud reason
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Hmmmm.....spent too much money on that there internet service and not enough on an education. New discoveries answer many questions to our own existence.