Open Paleo

Qantassaurus

Rich & Vickers-Rich, 1999 KWAHN-tuh-SOR-uhs /ˌkwɑːntəˈsɔːrəs/

Named after Qantas, the Australian airline, combined with Greek 'sauros' (lizard); honors the national carrier of the country where it was discovered.

125.8–121.4 million years ago Barremian, Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous stages

Qantassaurus is a genus of basal two-legged, plant-eating elasmarian ornithischian dinosaur that lived in Australia about 125-112 million years ago, when the continent was still partly south of the Antarctic Circle. It was described by Patricia Vickers-Rich and Tom Rich, a married couple, in 1999 after a find near Inverloch, and named after Qantas, the Australian airline.

Under dispute

Qantassaurus is known only from dentaries and was named as a hypsilophodontid (Rich and Vickers-Rich, 1999). Madzia and colleagues (2017) recover it within Elasmaria once the unstable Morrosaurus and Leaellynasaura are removed. Bell and colleagues (2018) and Herne and colleagues (2019) find it unstable and prune it, though Herne and colleagues note it might be an elasmarian from the resemblance of its teeth to those of Talenkauen.

Diagnosis

  1. Only ten cheek teeth in foreshortened dentary
  2. Dorsal and ventral margins of dentary converge anteriorly
  3. Strong primary ridge and prominent secondary ridges on cheek teeth

Species

Qantassaurus intrepidus Rich & Vickers-Rich, 1999

Type species

From Latin 'intrepidus' meaning 'intrepid' or 'fearless', referring to the climatic challenges the small dinosaur faced living within the Antarctic Circle.

Holotype
NMV P199075 , Museums Victoria
Material
Complete left dentary with all alveolar sockets preserved, with at least one tooth in seven of ten alveolar positions
Horizon
Wonthaggi Formation, Barremian, Early Cretaceous , 125.8–121.4 million years ago
Locality
Flat Rocks fossil vertebrate site, Victoria, Australia

References

  1. Rich, T. H.; Vickers-Rich, P. (1999). The Hypsilophodontidae from southeastern Australia. Proceedings of the Second Gondwanan Dinosaur Symposium, National Science Museum Monographs 15: 167-180.

    Named Qantassaurus as a hypsilophodontid.

    rich1999b
  2. Madzia, D.; Boyd, C. A.; Mazuch, M. (2017). A basal ornithopod dinosaur from the Cenomanian of the Czech Republic. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 16(11): 967-979. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2017.1371258

    Recovered Qantassaurus within Elasmaria after removing Morrosaurus and Leaellynasaura.

    madzia2017a
  3. Herne, M. C.; Nair, J. P.; Evans, A. R.; Tait, A. M. (2019). New small-bodied ornithopods (Dinosauria, Neornithischia) from the Early Cretaceous Wonthaggi Formation (Strzelecki Group) of the Australian-Antarctic rift system, with revision of Qantassaurus intrepidus Rich and Vickers-Rich, 1999. Journal of Paleontology 93(3): 543-584. Cambridge University Press (CUP). doi:10.1017/jpa.2018.95

    Found Qantassaurus a wildcard and pruned it; notes it might be an elasmarian from its teeth.

    herne2019a
  4. Bell, P. R.; Herne, M. C.; Brougham, T.; Smith, E. T. (2018). Ornithopod diversity in the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia. PeerJ 6: e6008. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.6008

    Found Qantassaurus unstable and pruned it from the reduced consensus.

    bell2018a
  5. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Treats Qantassaurus as an elasmarian.

    jones2026a