Ornithopod diversity in the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia

• Main Authors: Bell, Phil R, School of Environmental and Rural Science, orcid:0000-0001-5890-8183, Herne, Matthew C, Brougham, Tom, orcid:0000-0002-2771-536X, Smith, Elizabeth T
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PeerJ, Ltd 2018
• Subjects: Palaeontology (incl. Palynology); Palaeoecology; Animal Systematics and Taxonomy; Antarctic; Queensland; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/30344; https://rune.une.edu.au/web/retrieve/b983fda2-c4ff-4b35-9d0b-a21b342616c0

During the Early Cretaceous, dinosaur communities of the Australian-Antarctic rift system (Eumeralla and Wonthaggi formations) cropping out in Victoria were apparently dominated by a diverse small-bodied ‘basal ornithopod’ fauna. Further north, in Queensland (Winton and Mackunda formations), poorly-represented small-bodied ornithopods coexisted with large-bodied iguanodontians. Our understanding of the ornithopod diversity from the region between the Australian-Antarctic rift and Queensland, represented by Lightning Ridge in central-northern New South Wales (Griman Creek Formation), has been superficial. Here, we re-investigate the ornithopod diversity at Lightning Ridge based on new craniodental remains. Our findings indicate a diverse ornithopod fauna consisting of two-to-three small-bodied non-iguanodontian ornithopods (including Weewarrasaurus pobeni gen. et sp. nov.), at least one indeterminate iguanodontian, and a possible ankylopollexian. These results support those of previous studies that favour a general abundance of small-bodied basal ornithopods in Early to mid-Cretaceous high-latitude localities of southeastern Australia. Although these localities are not necessarily time-equivalent, increasing evidence indicates that Lightning Ridge formed a ‘meeting point’ between the basal ornithopod-dominated localities in Victoria and the sauropod-iguanodontian faunas in Queensland to the north.