10 December, 2015. 12:34
ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A CHANCE DISCOVERY in a northern Sydney creek bed has been heralded by paleontologists as the natural science find of a lifetime.
As this type of dinosaur is quite rare, especially in Australia, the discovery has baffled Dr Allen Plant from the Sydney University paleontology department.
“We typically don’t see anything this ‘out of place’ in Australia. A dinosaur like this is very, very uncommon,” said Dr Plant. “Speaking from a strictly scientific point of view, the Islamoscaretoneosaurus has no business being here.”
About the same height and weight of a homo sapien, the newly named Islamoscaretoneosaurus is a reptilian creature from the late Cretaceous Period that appeared to be an omnivore. Sporting a wide mouth with early examples of incisor and molar type teeth, the Islamoscaretoneosaurus has grabbed the attention of the world’s scientific community as the fossil’s stomach contents contained only raw, unprocessed onions.
The new species is now subject to a study conducted by Dr Plant and his team at the university. Samples thought to be of the dinosaurs head and chest have been put through and MRI machine and what Plant discovered only added to the creature’s mystique.
“We’ve been able to conclude that the Islamoscaretoneosaurus was typically afraid of other dinosaurs that didn’t look like it. It was an especially pale reptile and the influx of darker meat-eating dinosaurs in the very late Cretaceous Period would’ve scared the it to death.”
