Today’s dinosaur is Weewarrasaurus pobeni, an ornithopod (small bipedal herbivore) from Australia known from fragmentary evidence. The only specimens consists of two sections of a jawbone with teeth. These were discovered by miners in 2013 during a routine mining run in a mine at the Wee Warra geologic locality of the Griman Creek Formation, near the town of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales.
The dinosaur’s name means “Poben’s Wee Warra Lizard”. The genus is named after the location of discovery, and the species (pobeni) is named for Mike Poben, an Opal dealer from Adelaide whofirst 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. (The picture is photos and 3D renders of the holotype.)
