SAVANNASAURUS
a plant-eating titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Australia.
Pronunciation: suh-VAN-uh-SOR-us
Meaning: Savanna lizard
Author/s: Poropat
et al. (
2016)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Queensland, Australia
Discovery Chart Position: #933
Savannasaurus elliottorum
(The Elliott's savanna lizard)Etymology
Savannasaurus is derived from the Taino Spanish "zavana" (savanna), in reference to the countryside in which the specimen was found, and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
The
species epithet,
elliottorum, honours the Elliott family for their ongoing contributions to Australian palaeontology.
Discovery
The remains of
Savannasaurus were discovered in the Winton Formation at the "Ho-Hum Site" (AODL—Australian Age of Dinosaurs Locality—82), Belmont sheep station, Winton, Queensland, Australia, by grazier David Elliot while mustering his sheep in 2005.
The
holotype (AODF660, nicknamed "Wade") consists of one neck vertebra, several neck ribs, eight back vertebrae, several back ribs, four hip vertebrae, five partial tail vertebrae, a partial shoulder girdle, left and right breast plates, incomplete left and right upper arms, a partial lower arm (a shattered ulna and left radius), hand bones (right metacarpals I-V, left metacarpal IV), two finger bones, a partial hip (both pubes and ischia), a left ankle, a foot bone (right metatarsal III), and associated fragments.
Preparators
Staff from the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Natural History Museum, the Queensland Museum, and the University of Queensland.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Cenomanian-Turonian
Age range: 99-89 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 15 meters
Est. max. hip height: 3 meters
Est. max. weight: 20 tons
Diet: Herbivore
Savannasaurus
elliottorum
References
• Wilson JA and Carrano MT (1999) "Titanosaurs and the Origin of "Wide-Gauge" Trackways: A Biomechanical and Systematic Perspective on Sauropod Locomotion".
Paleobiology, 25(2): 252-267. DOI: 10.1017/S0094837300026543.
• Hocknull SA, White MA, Tischler TR, Cook AG, Calleja ND, Sloan T and Elliott DA (2009) "New Mid-Cretaceous (Latest Albian) Dinosaurs from Winton, Queensland, Australia".
PLOS ONE, 4(7): e6190. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006190.
• Tucker RT, Roberts EM, Hu Y, Kemp AIS and Salisbury SW (2013) "Detrital zircon age constraints for the Winton Formation, Queensland: Contextualizing Australia's Late Cretaceous dinosaur faunas".
Gondwana Research, 24(2): 767-779. DOI: 10.1016/j.gr.2012.12.009.
• Poropat SF, PD Mannion, P Upchurch, SA Hocknull, BP Kear, M Kundrát, TR Tischler, T Sloan, GHK Sinapius, JA Elliott and DA Elliott (2016)
"
New Australian sauropods shed light on Cretaceous dinosaur palaeobiogeography".
Scientific Reports, 6: 34467.
DOI: 10.1038/srep34467.
• Fletcher TL, Moss PT and Salisbury SW (2018) "
The palaeoenvironment of the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian–Turonian) portion of the Winton Formation, Queensland, Australia".
PeerJ, 6: e5513. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5513.
• Poropat SF, Mannion PD, Upchurch P, Tischler TR, Sloan T, Sinapius GHK, Elliott JA and Elliott DA (2020) "Osteology of the Wide-Hipped Titanosaurian Sauropod Dinosaur
Savannasaurus elliottorum from the Upper Cretaceous Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 40(3): e1786836. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2020.1786836.
• Preuschoft H (2022) "Mechanical analysis of the wide-hipped titanosaur
Savannasaurus elliottorum Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments".
(advance online publication)
DOI: 10.1007/s12549-022-00527-1.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
SAVANNASAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/SAVANNASAURUS›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
