This was the Early Cretaceous, and lush forests filled with dinosaurs dominated the landscape. We still find traces of these animals in Victoria's fossil record.

Most of the dinosaur fossils found in Victoria belong to small plant-eaters called ornithopods. But there are also a few theropod fossils—a diverse group that includes all known carnivorous dinosaurs, as well as modern birds.

More than 250 theropod bones have been found in the Victorian Cretaceous. In the paleontology collections of Museums Victoria, we have now identified five theropod fossils of particular importance. Our work on these bones has been published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Shinbones and tail bones

Research over the past decade has revealed striking similarities between Australian and South American dinosaurs. These include megaraptorids with claws shaped like scythes, and small, fleet-footed elasmarian ornithopods. There were also armored parankylosaurians and colossal sauropods with long necks and small heads.

These parallels may seem surprising at first, but both continents retained a connection to Antarctica throughout much of the Cretaceous Period.