page_title: Kunbarrasaurus
section_title: Discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Kunbarrasaurus / Discovery
caption_attribution_description: Cranial osteology of Kunbarrasaurus ieversi gen. et sp. nov. (formerly Minmi sp.) (QM F18101), with schematic version in dorsal (A–B) and ventral (C–D) aspects. Abbreviations: add cham, adductor chamber; bo, basioccipital; bs, basisphenoid; cranq can, cranioquadrate canal; ch, choanae; ect, ectopterygoid; f, frontal; fen pal, palatal fenestra; for mag, foramen magnum; intpt vac, interpterygoidal vacuity; j, jugal; mx, maxilla; mx pal, maxillary palate; n, nasal; nas vest, nasal vestibule; ot, otoccipital; p, parietal; pf, prefrontal; po, postorbital; pro rost pt, rostral process of the pterygoid; ps, parasphenoid; pt, pterygoid; q, quadrate (parts i and ii); qj, quadratojugal; so, supraorbital; socc, supraoccipital; sq, squamosal; v, vomer; XII, hypoglossal nerve. Legend: dotted line, partially fused suture; light grey, dermal ossifications; grey, topographic relief; dark grey, deep topographic relief; slanted lines, broken surfaces; dots, matrix; hatching, fragmentary bone material. Scale bar equals 10 cm.
context_page_description: Kunbarrasaurus is a genus of small herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Cretaceous of Australia.
context_section_description: In November 1989, at Marathon Station near Richmond, Queensland, the skeleton was discovered of an ankylosaurian. In January 1990 it was secured by a team led by Ralph Molnar. In 1996, in a provisional description, Molnar concluded that it could be referred to the genus Minmi as a Minmi sp. Subsequently, the specimen was further prepared by an acid bath and investigated by a CAT scan. The new information led to the conclusion that the species could be named in a separate genus of ankylosaur.
  In 2015, Lucy G. Leahey, Ralph E. Molnar, Kenneth Carpenter, Lawrence M. Witmer en Steven W. Salisbury named and described the type species Kunbarrasaurus ieversi. The genus name is derived from Kunbarra - the word for 'shield' in the Mayi language of the local Wunumara people. The specific name ieversi honours Mr Ian Ivers, the property manager who originally found the fossil. The description was limited to the skull. Kunbarrasaurus was one of eighteen dinosaur taxa from 2015 to be described in open access or free-to-read journals.
  The holotype, QM F1801, was found in a layer of the Allaru Formation, marine sediments dating from the late Albian, or possibly the early Cenomanian. It consists of an almost complete skeleton with skull, containing the vertebral column up to the middle tail, the left shoulder girdle, the left arm minus the hand, the pelvis, both thighbones and most of the body armour. Both the bones and the armour are largely articulated. In the belly region remains have been found of the animal's last meal. The specimen represents the most complete dinosaur skeleton ever found in Eastern Gondwana (Australia, Antarctica, Madagascar and India) and the most complete ankylosaurian skeleton from the entirety of the Gondwanan continents.
  Five specimens earlier referred to a Minmi sp. were not referred to Kunbarrasaurus by the 2015 description.
caption: Skull from above and below
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