Hi All
Gondwana seems to have missed out on all the exciting stuff. Here in Oz
the dinos all seem a bit retro
:-)
I think part of the problem is that the "retro" nature of many Oz dinosaurs was based on
erroneous conclusions about their affinities. Many Oz dinosaurs from the Cretaceous were once fingered as
"relict" or "primitive" members of their respective groups.
For example, the "primitive" Cretaceous sauropod _Austrosaurus_ was once thought to be a late-surviving 'cetiosaur'. It's now been established quite convincingly that _Austrosaurus_ is a titanosauriform.
The "_Allosaurus_" astragalus (NMV Pl50070), which was supposed to prove that _Allosaurus_ survived into the mid-Cretaceous of Australia, is probably not even from an allosaurid.
_Rapator_ (another Cretaceous theropod) was initially linked to the Late
Jurassic _Ornitholestes_ (hence the species name _ornitholestoides_); but the
single bone probably comes from an alvarezsaurid.
Last but not least, some older phylogenies had _Minmi_ outside the
ankylosaurid-nodosaurid clade, as some kind of basal ankylosaur. More recent
phylogenies have tended to nest _Minmi_ inside the Ankylosauridae.
Cheers
Tim
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