biology

Weewarrasaurus

Weewarrasaurus is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Weewarrasaurus rather than just read about it. In short: Weewarrasaurus is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of the Griman Creek Formation near Lightning Ridge, in New South Wales, Australia. The type and only species is W. pobeni, known from the holotype, an isolated dentary preserved in opal, as well as a secondary referred dentary.

Key takeaways

Weewarrasaurus belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Weewarrasaurus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Weewarrasaurus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Weewarrasaurus is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of the Griman Creek Formation near Lightning Ridge, in New South Wales, Australia. The type and only species is W. pobeni, known from the holotype, an isolated dentary preserved in opal, as well as a secondary referred dentary. It is thought to have co-existed with multiple other ornithopods of different sizes and lineages.

Discovery and naming

The type specimen (the specimen on which the species was first recognised), specimen number LRF 3067, consists of two sections of a jawbone with teeth. It was first discovered in 2013 by miners. They found the specimen in a mine at the Wee Warra geologic locality of the Griman Creek Formation, near the town of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia during a routine mining run, and it was broken during excavation. Opal dealer Mike Poben, from Adelaide, first recognised it as a fossil, after acquiring it in a bag of rough opals received from the miners. The specimen was noted for being preserved in green-blue opal, a gemstone for which the region is well known. Palaeontologist Phil Bell was shown the specimen in 2014 and remarked upon its significance, and so Poben donated it to the Australian Opal Centre, which has the world's largest collection of opal fossils.

Bell and colleagues later named it as a new genus and species in a study published on December 4, 2018, which reviewed the ornithopod fossil record for the Griman Creek Formation, which includes the mine. The generic name Weewarrasaurus refers to the Wee Warra fossil locality where the fossils were found, and the Greek word saurus, meaning lizard. The specific name, W. pobeni, honours Poben. The opal banding on the fossil was used to confirm that both parts of the dentary, which do not form a continuous sequence, were from the same individual. These bands also allowed investigation of how far apart in the jawbone the two sections were originally. In addition to the opal type specimen, or holotype, the researchers assigned a second partial jawbone, specimen LRF 766, to the new species, due to the similar tooth morphology. It was found in the Holden's locality on the Three Mile opal field, also near Lightning Ridge and part of the Griman Creek Formation.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Weewarrasaurus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Weewarrasaurus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Weewarrasaurus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Weewarrasaurus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Weewarrasaurus

In research: Weewarrasaurus appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Weewarrasaurus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Weewarrasaurus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cenomanian dinosaurs, Dinosaur genera, Dinosaurs of Australia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Weewarrasaurus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Weewarrasaurus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Weewarrasaurus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Weewarrasaurus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Weewarrasaurus in simple terms?

Why does Weewarrasaurus matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Weewarrasaurus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Weewarrasaurus.