Elena MarianDiamantinasaurus matildae had cross-continental connectionsElena Marian
The first nearly complete skull of Diamantinasaurus matildae — a 16-meter-long, 250-ton dinosaur with a long tail, a long neck, and a small head — found in Australia in 2018, bears profound similarities with Sarmientosaurus musacchioi, a species described in 2016 that lived in Argentina at around the same time, roughly 95 million years ago. The conclusion supports the theory that Australia and South America were once connected and suggests that dinosaurs roamed between the now separated continents via a land connection with Antarctica. Phylogenetic analyses presented by Australian researchers also suggest a close evolutionary relationship between the two species, both closely linked to the origin of titanosaurs. Reinforcing these continental connections, the skull of a Tapuiasaurus macedoi sauropod found in Brazil in 2011 is very similar to that of other titanosaurs from Madagascar and Mongolia (Royal Society Open Science and The Conversation, April 12).
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