New dinosaur species classified as Australotitan cooperensis is believed to be as long as a basketball court and towered over T.Rex.
Australotitan cooperensis was “certainly the largest animal that’s ever walked the Outback.”
According to NBC News, that staggering figure made the newly classified Australotitan cooperensis longer than a standard basketball court. The prehistoric titan also stood as tall as 21 feet, and has officially become the biggest dinosaur ever found on the continent — and one of the 15 largest ever discovered by mankind.
According to LiveScience, the teenager who found it was the son of Eromanga Natural History Museum director Robin Mackenzie. In 2007, she and paleontologists from the Queensland Museum finally unearthed the creature, and this month, the scientists published a study laying out just how gigantic it was.
Sandy Mackenzie was only 14 years old when he stumbled upon the curious fossil. Right beneath his feet in the Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia was the bone of the new dinosaur species that wandered the Earth between 92 and 96 million years ago. Far more astounding than its age, however, was its enormous length of 98 feet.
Scott Hocknull, co-author of the study and Queensland Museum vertebrate paleoecologist said: “In Australia, it’s certainly the largest animal that’s ever walked the Outback,”
“This is huge. This is a fantastic beast. Imagine something the size of a basketball court walking around on land.”
“Discoveries like this are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Hocknull. “Our ultimate goal is to find evidence that tells the changing story of Queensland, hundreds of millions of years in the making.”
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