'Crocosaurus' fossil discovery sparks fresh theories about globe-trotting dinosaur

THE science world was abuzz today after the discovery of an Australian fossil linked to a crocodile-nosed dinosaur that roamed the world more than 100 million years ago.

Scientists at London's Natural History Museum said the fossil is similar to a specimen found in Britain in 1983 of a Baryonyx - a 33-feet-long (10m-long) dinosaur with a crocodile-shaped mouth and bear-like claws.

This latest discovery in Australia suggests that meat-eating dinosaurs from the group called spinosaurids lived all over the world and not just in the northern continents as previously thought.

The fossil was first discovered by research volunteers in 2005 in the Great Otway National Park, 162km south-west of Melbourne, the Geelong Advertiser reported.

"The fact that [spinosaurids] existed in Australia changes our understanding of the evolution of this group of dinosaurs," said Dr Thomas Rich, senior curator from the Museum Victoria.

Last year the Natural History Museum identified a separate fossil from the same region as the first evidence of a relative of the Tyrannosaurus Rex in any southern continent.

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