Name:

Woolungasaurus (Greek for "Woolung lizard"); pronounced WOO-lung-ah-SORE-us

Habitat:

Shores of Australasia

Historical Period:

Middle Cretaceous (110 million years ago)

Size and Weight:

About 30 feet long and 5-10 tons

Diet:

Fish

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Slender trunk with long neck and small head

 

About Woolungasaurus:

Just as every country lays claim to its own terrestrial dinosaur, it helps to be able to brag about a marine reptile or two.


Woolungasaurus is Australia's native plesiosaur (a family of aquatic reptiles characterized by their slender bodies, long necks and small heads), though this creature pales in comparison to Mauisaurus, a plesiosaur discovered within the environs of Australia's neighbor New Zealand that was about twice as big. (To give Australia its due, though, Mauisaurus lived tens of million years after Woolungosaurus, during the late rather than middle Cretaceous period, and so had sufficient time to evolve to larger sizes.)