Fostoria dhimbangunmal

Fostoria (named after Robert Foster who discovered the type locality and bones; the specific name dhimbangunmal means "sheep yard" in the languages of the Yuwaalaraay, Yuwaalayaay, and Gamilaraay peoples of Australia) is a genus of iguanodontian ornithopod dinosaur from the Griman Creek Formation of New South Wales, Australia. The type and only species, Fostoria dhimbangunmal was described in 2019.[1]

Fostoria
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Cenomanian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: †Ornithischia
Suborder: †Ornithopoda
Clade: †Iguanodontia
Genus: †Fostoria
Bell et al., 2019
Type species
†Fostoria dhimbangunmal
Bell et al., 2019

History of discovery

In 1984, Bob Foster, an opal miner, discovered a vertebra from an ornithopod in Lightning Ridge. Foster originally interpreted the fossil as a hoof belonging to a horse.[2] Foster eventually found so many fossils in his mine that he showed his finds to paleontologists of the Australian Museum in Sydney. After they had a look at the Fostoria fossils, paleontologist Alexander Ritchie with some army reservists travelled to the mine to excavate more fossils. The fossils were prepared but remained unstudied until 2015.[2] Foster in the early 21st century removed the finds from a private opal museum and exhibited them in, and later donated them to, the Australian Opal Museum in Lightning Ridge, where they remain to this day.[1]

References
  1. Phil R. Bell; Tom Brougham; Matthew C. Herne; Timothy Frauenfelder; Elizabeth T. Smith (2019). "Fostoria dhimbangunmal, gen. et sp. nov., a new iguanodontian (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) from the mid-Cretaceous of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Online edition: e1564757. doi:10.1080/02724634.2019.1564757.
  2. "Opal miner unearths new species of dinosaur". www.popularmechanics.com.



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