Walgettosuchus is a type of dinosaur that lived in Australia during the Late Cretaceous period, around 99 to 96 million years ago. Its name means “Walgett crocodile.”
This dinosaur is considered a theropod, which is a group that includes many meat-eating dinosaurs. However, Walgettosuchus is known from only one piece of its body—a single tail vertebra.
The story of Walgettosuchus begins in 1905 when a fossil was discovered by Tullie Cornthwaite Wollaston in a place called Lightning Ridge. This area is famous for opals, and the fossil was found in a kind of sandstone that contained these gems.
In 1909, the fossil was sent to the British Museum of Natural History and studied by Arthur Smith Woodward. He published some findings about it in 1910. Then, in 1932, a scientist named Friedrich von Huene officially named the dinosaur Walgettosuchus woodwardi in honor of Woodward. The name “Walgettosuchus” reflects the town of Walgett and a connection to an Egyptian crocodile god.
The vertebra that was discovered is about 63 millimeters long. Von Huene thought it had some unique features, but others later said that it looked similar to tail bones from other dinosaurs, which made it hard to know exactly what Walgettosuchus was.
Some scientists think that Walgettosuchus might actually be the same as another dinosaur called Rapator. However, this can’t be proven since there are no complete fossils linking the two.
Overall, because of the little information we have, Walgettosuchus is considered a bit of a mystery in the world of dinosaurs.