Back in the 1980s, a miner unearthed a slew of fossils preserved in opals in an opal mine near Lightning Ridge in Australia. A recent analysis of those opalized fossils revealed that they held the remains of a herd of dinosaurs — including the world’s most complete opalized dinosaur.

Scientists have revealed that fossils from an underground opal mine near Lightning Ridge, outback NSW, include remains from a herd of dinosaurs, among them a new dinosaur species and the world’s most complete opalised dinosaur.

Dr Phil Bell, lead researcher from the University of New England in Armidale, said he was stunned by the sheer number of bones found. “We initially assumed it was a single skeleton, but when I started looking at some of the bones, I realised that we had four scapulae (shoulder blades) all from different sized animals.” It is the first dinosaur ‘herd’ to be discovered in Australia.

The new dinosaur has been named Fostoria dhimbangunmal in honour of opal miner Robert Foster, who discovered the fossils in the 1980s. The species name, dhimbangunmal (pronounced bim-baan goon-mal), means ‘sheep yard’ in the local Yuwaalaraay and Yuwaalayaay languages, in recognition of the Sheepyard locality where the bones were found.

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