Name:
Wintonotitan (Greek for "Winton giant"); pronounced win-TONE-oh-tie-tan
Habitat:
Woodlands of Australia
Historical Period:
Middle Cretaceous (100 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 50 feet long and 10 tons
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Large size; probably armor plating on back
About Wintonotitan:
For the last 75 years or so, Australia has been a relative wasteland when it comes to sauropod discoveries. That all changed in 2009, with the announcement of not one, but two new sauropod genera: Diamantinasaurus and Wintonititan, comparably sized titanosaurs represented by sparse fossil remains. Like most titanosaurs, Wintonititan probably had a rudimentary layer of armored skin along its back, the better to deter the large, hungry theropods of its Australian ecosystem.
