Muttaburrasaurus

## *Muttaburrasaurus langdoni*

★★★☆☆

* Mookaite
* Opal
* Billabong

## Diet

 Plants

*Muttaburrasaurus* is a large herbivorous Ornithopod that lived in Australia during the Cretaceous, famous for its bizarre nose. It is represented by one species; Muttaburrasaurus langdoni.

It was added to the game in Update 9.

## In-Game

### Description

These ornithopods stand about 26 feet long and weighs more than 3 tons, as heavy as today's African forest elephants. Like its relative *Iguanodon* and the hadrosaur *Edmontosaurus*, *Muttaburrasaurus* is restored in-game with a distinctive row of back tabs. It differs from them and most other large ornithopods in-game by being primarily bipedal, a trait this animal shares with *Ouranosaurus.* The pupils of Prehistoric Kingdom's *Muttaburrasaurus* are rounded and birdlike, unlike most other ornithopods which are depicted with goatlike horizontal pupils.

In-game these animals use their snouts to produce a variety of strange noises, similar to how *Dilophosaurus, Lambeosaurus, Parasaurolophus/Charonosaurus,* and to an extent *Mammuthus* produce their distinctive calls.

## Paleontology

*Muttaburrasaurus* is one of the most completely known Australian dinosaurs, and was first discovered in 1963 near Muttaburra, Queensland by a local grazier named Doug Langdon while mustering his Cattle. It was later recovered by paleontologist Dr Alan Bartholomai and entomologist Edward Dahms, and described and named in 1981 by Dr. Barthlomai and Queensland Museum curator Ralph Molnar after the fossil was prepared. The specific name *M. langdoni* honors the discoverer of the original *Muttaburrasaurus* material, and the Generic name *Muttaburrasaurus* is in reference to the nearby town. Paleontologists have since unearthed a good amount of specimens of this animal in different areas of Australia, as well as many of the species' teeth.

*Muttaburrasaurus* seems to have been a member of the Rhabdodontomorpha clade of ornithopods alongside *Tenontosaurus*, placing it as an early relative of related later taxa such as the island dwelling *Zalmoxes*. Rhabdodontomorphans were a specific group of Iguanodontians which were often robust and could vary in size from rather tiny to animals of notable size, such as this Australian member.

The distinctive snout of *Muttaburrasaurus* was a hollow structure which may have served as an acoustic device of some sort or as a visual display, or both. The structure seems to have increased in size over evolutionary time, as older specimens assigned to *Muttaburrasaurus sp.* seem to have shorter nose expansions than the more recent *M. langdoni* specimens.

The jaws of this animal seem to have been quite robust and were equipped with teeth adept at shearing, making them able to process tough plant material such as cycads. Their teeth also bare marked differences from their later relatives, with their replacement teeth erupting directly underneath their old teeth rather than to the side and alternating in the later tooth batteries of animals such as hadrosaurs and *Iguanodon*.

## Gallery

Two Muttaburrasaurus drinking at a waterhole

## Trivia

* Prior to Dev Diary: August 2023, *Muttaburrasaurus* had only been seen in the animal nursery menu in early stages of development as a silhouette.
	+ It was one of 3 Animals hinted at in this manner, the other 2 being *Deinocheirus* and *Scelidosaurus*.
	+ All three were suspected to be the animals shown in that early teaser due to members of the Discord seemingly finding the placeholder images used to produce the silhouettes.
* *Muttaburrasaurus* is the first Australian animal in Prehistoric Kingdom.
* *Muttaburrasaurus* is one of the most famous dinosaurs from Australia thanks to its inclusion in Walking With Dinosaurs and its distinctive snout.
* *Muttaburrasaurus* is the Fossil Emblem of Queensland, Australia, winning out against a field of 12 other fossil candidates including animals such as *Kronosaurus, Siderops,* and *Diamantinasaurus*.