Name:
Leaellynasaura (Greek for "Leaellyn's lizard"); pronounced lee-ELL-in-ah-SORE-ah
Habitat:
Plains of Australia
Historical Period:
Middle Cretaceous (105 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 10 feet long; weight unknown
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Slim build; relatively large eyes and brain
About Leaellynosaura:
If tbe name Leaellynasaura sounds a bit odd, that's because this is one of the few dinosaurs named after a living person: in this case, the young daughter of Australian paleontologists Thomas Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich, who dug up this fossil in 1989.
The most striking thing about Leaellynasaura is how far south it lived. In the middle Cretaceous, what was now the continent of Australia was relatively cold, with long, dark winters. This would explain Leaellynasaura's relatively large eyes (which gathered in all the available light), and it may also be a clue that this dinosaur had a warm-blooded metabolism, since no modern, cold-blooded reptiles live in arctic environments.
