Australia's Dinosaurs Trivia Quiz

Answer: Muttaburrasaurus

The Muttaburrasaurus was named after the town of Muttaburra in central Queensland, near where it was first discovered. Living around 100 million years ago, during the early Cretaceous period, the Muttaburrasaurus was an herbivore who probably ate ferns and cycads. Specimens have been found in Queensland and a few opalised ones in northern New South Wales.

Answer: Rhoetosaurus

Rhoetosaurus, a large herbivore, grew to around 12m long and 7m tall, with a femur (large leg bone) measuring 1.5m. This Australian dinosaur was discovered near Roma, Queensland in 1924 and lived in the Jurassic period, between 175 to 180 million years ago.

Answer: Winton, Queensland

During the 1960's, at the Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackway in the Lark Quarry Conservation Park, 115km south west of Winton, the Australian Army helped excavate the best example of dinosaur tracks found in the world! In the quarry there are more than three thousand dinosaur footprints dating from around 95 million years ago.

The Queensland Museum estimates nearly 200 individual dinosaurs made the tracks, with three main types: the small tracks are from a coelurosaur; a rather large group of tracks are from orithopods; and, other tracks from a large flesh-eating dinosaur are also evident.

Answer: Minmi

Living around the same time as the Muttaburrasaurus, in the early Cretaceous period, Minmi measured 3m in length. An ankylosaur with bony armour, Minmi was a speedy runner (for an ankylosaur). The Winton Carnosaur measured up to 10m in length; the Woolungasaurus was around 9.5m in length, and the Australian ichthyosaur was 7m in length.

Answer: Rhoetosaurus

The Fulgurotherium, or Lightning Beast, lived in the early Cretaceous period and measured about 1.5m long. It was a herbivorous dinosaur related to modern day birds. Timimus was one of the discoveries made in Dinosaur Cove, in Victoria. The fossilised part of a legbone is the only evidence discovered (in Western Australia) of Ozraptor.

Answer: Broome, Western Australia

In 1987 and 1993, sauropod footprints were found on rock platforms around Broome, Western Australia. Most of the footprints are only 45 to 90cm wide, but one set is 1.5m wide, wider than the tyres of a semi-trailer! The giant sauropod who made these is estimated to have been over 45m long, possibly bigger than any other dinosaur on Earth.

Answer: Woolungasaurus

Woolungasaurus glendowerensis lived in the early Cretaceous period and was an elasmosaur (a long-necked type of plesiosaur) that lived in Australia's Eromanga Sea (inland sea); fossils of most of the skeleton have been found at Richmond, central Queensland.

The Queensland Kronosaur (Kronosaurus queenslandicus) also lived in the early Cretaceous period and was a giant pliosaur, a huge swimming reptile. Tingamarra porterorum lived 55 million years ago in the early Eocene period and was a ground-dwelling mammal that ate insects and fruit, an ancestor of modern day dogs, cats, horses and even whales.

The Australian Ichthyosaur (Platypterygius longmani), was a large, dolphin-shaped reptile that lived in the Eromanga Sea in the early Cretaceous period.

Answer: Dinosaur Cove

Dinosaur Cove is located in Victoria on the Great Ocean Road. The rocks in the area that hold many fossils, date back to around 106 million years ago. During the early Cretaceous period, Dinosaur Cove was in the middle of a flood plain where the remains of dead animals and plants were preserved, including; Leaellynasaura amicagraphica and Atlascopcosaurus loadsi (hypsilophodontids); Timimus hermani (a coelurosauria); and, what might be a caenagnathid, a relative of the oviraptor.

Answer: Qantassaurus

Qantassaurus, a hypsilophodontid, was discovered in October 1999. It was named after the Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service (QANTAS) in recognition of their efforts in moving the Great Russian Dinosaur Exhibition around Australia from 1993 to 1996. Amanda floribunda was a fern found in the Devil's Kitchen which grew around 120 million years ago. Australuris plexus was a mayfly found in Koonwarra around 118 million years ago along with Victalimulus macqueeni, which was a spider.

Answer: Kakuru

The coelurosaur, Kakuru kujani, was found in Andamooka, South Australia. The word 'Kakuru' means 'rainbow serpent' in the local Aboriginal dialect (because the fossil is opalised it exhibits many colours). The Ozraptor subotaii was a 2m tall theropod from Western Australia. Dinosaur remains have been found in opal fields in both South Australia and New South Wales.

Answer: Nanantius

Nanantius was found near Boulia, in Queensland, in 1932. An enantiornithines, which was a primitive flying bird, it was not an ancestor of modern birds, it was extinct by the end of the Cretaceous period. The rapator name is derived from the Latin word 'raptor' which means 'that which seizes'. Rapators measured up to 9m in length. Leaellynasaura was a bipedal, herbivorous hypsilophodontid, named after Leaellyn Rich, the daughter of palaeontologists! Adults were almost 1m in length and, in the polar forest they inhabited, they fed on ferns, horsetails, conifers and ginkgo trees.

In 2003, another dinosaur find, believed to be a ceratopian, was named Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei. This Australian dinosaur predates previously discoverd ceratopians by about 30 million years and if a true ceratopian it would mean this dinosaur originated much earlier than thought and on the opposite side of the world!

Answer: Sauropod

The remains of a sauropod were discovered in 1999 on a sheep station near Winton, Queensland. A partial femur, tail vertebrae, ribs and lots of smaller fragments were found and the dinosaur was named 'Elliot' after the owners of the station. The femur was estimated to be 1.7m in length, making Elliot the largest Australian dinosaur discovered, 16 to 21m long and taller than Rhoetosaurus (which was around 18m). Elliot's remains date back to about 95 million years ago.

Answer: Triassic

The Triassic period was between 248 and 206 million years ago.

Answer: Ankle

A single, almost complete ankle bone was found at Cape Patterson, below the Strzelecki Ranges, in Victoria, in 1979.

Answer: Hughie

At the Hughenden Visitor Information Centre and Dinosaur Display there is a mounted skeleton of Muttaburrasaurus. A 7m long reconstruction of a Muttaburrasaurus named 'Hughie' stands outside the centre. Actual fossils from 'Eric', the pliosaur are on display at the National Opal Collection in Sydney.

The 'Addyman' Plesiosaur (named after its finders) is on display at the South Australian Museum, it's about eighty percent complete. The Richmond Marine Fossil Museum opened in 1995 with fossils including, the Richmond Pliosaur, Minmi and Woolungosaurus.