Fossilized remains originally found by miners in the Lightning Ridge, New South Wales have led to the discovery of the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever discovered in Australia – a 22-foot long, 110 million-year-old beast that has affectionately been dubbed “Lightning Claw.”
According to Discovery News, paleontologists were able to recover pieces of the hip, ribs, an arm, and a foot of the Cretaceous Period predator, as well as a 10-inch claw that they claim was used as a “grappling hook” to capture prey. The partially complete skeleton is said to be the second most complete ever unearthed on the island, the website added.
“What is fascinating about this discovery,” Dr. Phill Bell from the University of New England said in a statement, “is [that] it changes the popular notion that Australian dinosaurs came from ancestors derived from Africa and South America. Instead, the ‘Lightning Claw’ appears to be the ancestor of all megaraptorids, meaning this group appeared first in Australia.”
The new dinosaur, which does not yet have an official name, is believed to have been a little bit larger than the 16 foot long Australovenator, a megaraptorid that had previously been Australia’s largest meat-eater. Lightning Claw is also believed to be the oldest member of its group.
Lightning Claw was ‘stunning’ and ‘unique’
The fossilized bones of Lightning Claw were first found by opal miners back in 2005, according to the Huffington Post, and a paper detailing the newly-identified species was published online in the journal Gondwana Research earlier this month. Researchers from the University of Bologna in Italy and the Australian Opal Centre were also credited as author on the study.
Co-author Dr. Federico Fanti, paleontologist at the University of Bologna, said it was “crystal clear” that they had discovered a new species, as it was “very different” from fossils previously collected in the area. The fossils, he said, were “made of opal… stunning and unique.”
The Daily Mail reports that Lightning Claw is only the second dinosaur discovered in Australia to be identified from more than a single bone. However, recently-discovered tracks may indicate that even larger dinosaurs may have called the region home. The creature will not be officially described as a new species until additional fossils are found.
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Feature Image: Julius T. Csotonyi/University of New England
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