Another delayed post… but interesting all the same. I hope they are helpful to someone and of nothing else, a wonderful record of times when the kids and I had fun learning about something new and just a bit unique.

While 2014 has not had us digging deep into the dinosaur world like we have, we did find the time to learn all about this Australian herbivore. The Minmi is named after a water body in Australia and is one of the most complete sets of fossils. Things like stomach content, skin texture and all sorts of fine details are saved in the fossils. It is believed that this dinosaur was often washed to sea and preserved as it was definitely a 4 legged land mammal.

Emanuel found this dinosaur most interesting due to its many armored plates and its obvious herbivore nature. We had a great discussion about where Australia is and how this was NOT a large armored dinosaur. Now we did have a rather interesting video by La Trobe University. Australian Dinosaur – Minmi.

And the links were actually plentiful on this dinosaur:

• EnchantedLearning HERE
• Australian Museum HERE
• Age of Dinosaurs HERE
• Find the Best has a great picture HERE
• Dinosaur of the Week HERE
• KidsDinos.com HERE
• The National Dinosaur Museum has a lengthy article HERE
• Wiki has their article HERE
• We got our picture off of deviantArt by hyphenatedsuperhero HERE
• We FOUND this dinosaur in a library book – The Big Book of Dinosaurs by DK.

Sorry no picture with this ancient dino post. BUT as I did last year, this year is the year to catch up. So posting the dinosaurs it is. Enjoy this Australian dinosaur post. I promise December VERY soon!

What a name – Diamantinasaurus Matildae, known more commonly in Australia as Matilda. This Cretaceous period sauropod is still mostly unknown. Only portions of its skeleton have been recovered to date. It is possibly the biggest sauropod in Australia. In comparison to the other large Titanosaurs, Matilda is actually on the small side. It is considered to be stocky and round with an almost bow legged appearance.

We had one video from LatrobeUniAustralia called Australian Dinosaur – Diamantinasaurus.

The link list is relatively short but definitely interesting…

• Australian Age of Dinosaurs HERE
• Australian Museum HERE
• Dinosaurs.about.com HERE
• Prehistoric Wildlife HERE
• Dinopedia HERE
• Wiki HERE
• There is a rather fanciful picture HERE that I have to share just due to its beauty by Sauropod Vertebrae Picture of the Week
• And our colouring page… from the Disillusioned Taxonomist HERE

Today’s dinosaur was found near the town of Muttaburra in Australia. This Cretaceous period dinosaur was an herbivore with a large nasal passage that it is believed would have made it one of the loudest dinosaurs. Some believe that it could have potentially eaten some meat as well! It is one of the most complete dinosaurs found in Australia and has some of the same features as an iguana. We had two videos for this Australian dinosaur… the first was from the I’m a Dinosaur series.

The other From Latrobe University.

Australia certainly has had many unusual animals on its continent both past and present. For links we start with Animal Planet HERE. KidsDinos has charts and a map HERE. The National Dinosaur Museum has a lengthy article that while we did not read the whole thing we did skim it HERE. Of course the Australian Museum mentions our dinosaur HERE. Dinosaurs.about.com has a page HERE. Dino Fact File has a short piece HERE. EnchantedLearning has a fact sheet HERE. Our colouring sheet is from HERE and of course Wiki has their say HERE.

Working with his big brother