Leaellynasaura amicagraphica is a small herbivorous ornithopod that lived in Australia during the Early Cretaceous, well known for braving long periods of cold darkness and being cute while doing it.
It was added to the game in Update 11.
In-Game[]
Description[]
Leaellynasaura in-game is depicted with a feathery coat of varying extent and thickness across its 3 skins, in reference to the range of temperatures these little ornithischians would have had to contend with in their environments. The "Hibernal" skin is feathered across the whole body from its snout to its toes with a thick coat of feathers, while the other two skins - "Equinox" and "Vernal" - both have scaly feet. The thinly feathered "Vernal" skin also bears a unique scaly face. All of the skins possess speculative slit pupils for dealing with the extreme light conditions of their original habitat, which also gives them a much more devious look when paired with their startling dentition.
Management[]
TBA
In-Game Trivia[]
Nigel Marven
This little cutie is Leaellynasaura.
Nigel Marven
During the Cretaceous Period, the region of Australia that this dinosaur hails from was located in the Antarctic Circle, even further “under” the globe than the landmass is today. You could say it really lived in a land “down under”!
Nigel Marven
I often hear parents begging us to open a petting zoo, if only because their children won’t stop asking to pet the Leaellynasaura. Personally, I’ve found these dinosaurs to be rather skittish, so I don’t think they’d take well to flocks of children grabbing at their tails…
Nigel Marven
Leaellynasaura was named after its discovers’ daughter Leaellyn. If I was ever lucky enough to name a dinosaur, I’d like to think I’d do the same.
Paleontology[]
Leaellynasaura lived in Australia during the early Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous roughly 110 million years ago, with its fossils first being discovered in Dinosaur Cove by paleontologist couple Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich. The pair would later go on to describe and name the fossil after their daughter Leaellyn Rich in 1989. The full binomial name Leaellynasaura amicagraphica translates to "Leaellyn's Friend Writing Lizard", with the species name honoring the Friends of the Museum of Victoria and National Geographic Society.
Paleoecology[]
During its time, Leaellynasaura would have lived within the Antarctic Circle. Though conditions were much more hospitable during the Albian than they are today, these little dinosaurs would still have had to cope with long periods of both darkness and sunlight depending on the time of year. The Eumeralla Formation that these animals called home was a quite forested and fluvial floodplain, with rivers and oxbow lakes being prominent. Coastal elements are also known to have played a factor thanks to microfossil analysis of Dinoflagellate fossils.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Leaellynasaura is the second Australian animal in Prehistoric Kingdom after Muttaburrasaurus.
- Leaellynasaura was first revealed in the Prehistoric Kingdom Artbook as a surprise inclusion, and was later revealed to the the wider public in March 2024's Dev Diary.
- Leaellynasaura's main claim to fame comes from its starring role in the Walking With Dinosaurs (1999) episode "Spirits of the Ice Forest", where a herd of these little dinosaurs deal with threats posed by both the elements and predators such as an Allosaurus and the temnospondyl amphibian Koolasuchus.
- Nowadays Leaellynasaura is not thought to have ever crossed paths with any species of Allosaurus, and Koolasuchus so far does not have any known fossils from the same time and place as Leaellynasaura either.
- Leaellynasaura instead seems to have shared its environment with animals such as megaraptorans, ankylosaurs, pterosaurs and a number of fellow elasmarian ornithopods such as Atlascopcosaurus.
- Leaellynasaura is not the only dinosaur genus to be named after the children of Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich; another dinosaur from the Eumeralla Formation was named Timimus by the pair for their son Timothy.
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