Page 74 - DINOSOUR ATLAS

AustrAliA And AntArcticA
Dinosaur Cove V Lake Corangamite O R I Geelong

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T
A
C
In the early cretaceous, about 110 million years ago, some dinosaurs lived O t w a y R a n g e
in a polar environment, where there was total darkness for the months of
winter and temperatures fell below zero. At this time, Australia lay within Port Campbell Otway
the Antarctic Circle, and dinosaurs that lived there were adapted to National Park National Park
Dinosaur Cove
cold, dark winters followed by days of 24-hour sunlight in summer. Cape Otway
Leaellynasaura was one of them, roaming in herds across a forested B a s s S t r a i t
plain. Today, in an area of south Australia known as Dinosaur Cove, u site locAtion
the fossils of Leaellynasaura as well as other dinosaurs and animals
Dinosaur Cove, Victoria, is on the coast of
have been unearthed. southeast Australia, where the Otway Range
meets the sea. The site is partway up a cliff.

AtlAscoPcosAurus
A small, two-legged plant-eater, Atlascopcosaurus
lived in herds. Its long hind legs suggest
tiMiMus that it was a fast-runner.
Leg bones from an adult and a
juvenile Timimus are all that has
been found of this dinosaur. They
are enough to identify it as a
coelurosaur—a small, lightweight
carnivore with slender legs.

Patricia Vickers-rich

Paleontologist Patricia Vickers-Rich
(b. 1944) works at Monash University,
Melbourne, Australia. She is married
PolAr forest to Thomas Rich, a paleontologist at the
The forest of conifers, ginkgoes, and Museum of Victoria, Melbourne. Their
monkey puzzle trees grew on a river fieldwork in Australia has resulted in
floodplain. The understory was a the discovery of dinosaurs Leaellynasaura
carpet of ferns, horsetails, and mosses. and Timimus.

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