Wintonotitan

Wintonotitan is an Australian sauropod named alongside Diamantinasaurus in 2009 from the Cretaceous Winton Formation in Queensland. Originally discovered in 1974 by Keith Watts and dubbed 'Clancy', the type specimen includes dorsal and caudal vertebrae, ribs, parts of the shoulder girdle, and limb bones. Unlike the heavily built Diamantinasaurus, Wintonotitan exhibited a noticeably more gracile build. It stood around three and a half metres tall at the hip, measuring approximately fifteen metres from head to tail. As a basal titanosauriform, it inhabited floodplains and forested river channels, browsing on conifer leaves and ferns.

Nicknamed 'Clancy', it was more slender and gracile than its contemporary Diamantinasaurus.

Where and when

Wintonotitan lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 96 to 93 million years ago (Cenomanian-Turonian age). Its remains come from Australia, in the Winton Formation.

The numbers

Length 16 m (estimates run from 15 to 16 m). Mass about 12 t. Hip height about 3.6 m. That is 9.1 human-lengths, or 1.38 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

Compare Wintonotitan with a bus Place on the timeline