Australia’s new armoured dinosaur revealed

It has a parrot-like beak, bones in its skin and an inner ear similar to a turtle. Meet Kunbarrasaurus, Australia's newest dinosaur. The skeleton of Kunbarrasaurus (koon-ba-rah-sore-rus) was discovered in 1989, but new research from a team led by University of Queensland experts has revealed the dinosaur is a distinctly different species than previously thought. UQ School of Biological Sciences PhD student Lucy Leahey said the fossil represented the most complete dinosaur so far discovered in Australia and one of the best-preserved ankylosaur fossils in the world. "Ankylosaurs were a group of four-legged, herbivorous dinosaurs, closely related to stegosaurs," Ms Leahey said. "Like crocodiles, they had bones in their skin and are commonly referred to as 'armoured' dinosaurs." "When it was first studied back in the 1990s, the fossil was placed it in the same genus as Australia's only other named ankylosaur, Minmi , which is based on some bones from Roma in south-western Queensland." The team's research found the fossil was different to the Roma Minmi , and distinct enough from all other ankylosaurs to warrant a new name. "Kunbarra is the word for 'shield' in the Mayi language of the Wunumara people from the Richmond area, and the species name honours the person who originally found the fossil, Mr Ian Ievers.