Muttaburrasaurus is an ornithopod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Australia. It was named in 1981 by Alan Bartholomai and Ralph. E. Molnar. It was one of the best-preserved dinosaurs from Australia, as well as one of the largest ornithopods from there.
Physiology[]
Muttaburrasaurus was a bipedal ornithopod with a semi-bulky body, long forelimbs, long, muscular hindlimbs, a moderately long tail, and a moderately large head with a bulbous snout and a small beak in front of its mouth. Its body would have been covered in scaly skin.
Diet[]
Muttaburrasaurus was an herbivore, feeding on leaves, ferns, and cycads. Its round beak was used to grab pieces of vegetation and pluck them, while the many teeth in the back of its mouth were used to process the vegetation.
Ecology[]
As Muttaburrasaurus was a primitive ornithopod, it was an obligate biped, and would not have been a very fast or agile runner due to both the aforementioned bipedal gait and its heavy build; it is likely that it was capable of achieving short bursts of speed, but it might not have needed to do, as it likely had no predators as an adult. As well as this, the function of the bulbous projection on Muttaburrasaurus' snout remains open to debate; some possible theories include being used as a resonating chamber for amplifying its calls or simply for display. Along with this, unlike most ornithopods, which had a battery of teeth made from alternating rows of old and new teeth, Muttaburrasaurus directly replaced its teeth and only had a single row, which meant that it likely did not actively chew its food; instead, it may have simply just plucked pieces of vegetation with its beak before slicing them into smaller pieces as it swallowed them. This may also indicate that it ate tough vegetation like cycads.
In popular culture[]
Muttaburrasaurus was featured in the 5th episode of the 1999 documentary Walking with Dinosaurs, where it is shown as migrating into the forest where the Leaellynasaura clan live as a summer visitor. When autumn starts, the herd of Muttaburrasaurus that stayed over the summer begin to migrate; however, a few individuals get lost in the forest and start crying out for the rest of the heard very loudly, preventing the Leaellynasaura from properly standing sentry and allowing a "polar allosaur" to sneak up on them, which leads to the death of the matriarch.