MEET “Lightning Claw”, the newest addition to Australia’s growing tally of dinosaur species and an exciting new find credited to University of New England palaeontologist Dr Phil Bell.
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The carnivorous dinosaur gets his name from the town of Lightning Ridge, where his fossilised remains were discovered, and the distinctive hand claw that identifies him as a member of the megaraptorid group.
The skeleton, close to 110 million years old, came from opal miners Rob and Debbie Brogan, and consists of a foot bone, parts of the hip, ribs, forearm and the giant claw on the hand.
Dr Bell, the lead author of a recently-published study on the prehistoric carnivore, said the animal would have been about 7m long and was the largest carnivorous dinosaur yet known from Australia, and only the second known from more than a single bone.
The discovery was made after Dr Bell began studying the collections at the Australian Opal Centre in Lightning Ridge about two years ago and he knew straight away what he was looking at was something special.
“I immediately recognised this fossil was something new,” Dr Bell said.
“When I compared it to other Australian and South American dinosaurs, it was clear it was a megaraptorid, which is relatively rare group of dinosaurs, mostly known from Argentina.”
Dr Bell’s find also means history will have to be rewritten to a certain extent, “Lightning Claw” proof that this unique family of dinosaurs actually originated here, something not considered previously.
