This is the fossilised claw of a carnivorous (meat-eating) dinosaur. It was found at Cape Otway, Victoria in 2014 by John Wilkins during fieldwork by a Museum Victoria-led team of researchers and volunteers.
This claw is very similar to the claw of Australovenator wintonensis, a theropod dinosaur found in Queensland and described in 2009. We think that this claw specimen is from a dinosaur closely related to Australovenator, if not from the same species. Both Victorian and Queensland dinosaurs would have been alive about 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.
The Museum Victoria claw is obviously from a carnivore, being rather sharp. In life it would have been even longer and sharper as the bone would have been covered by a horny sheath. This would have been attached at the groove running down the side of the claw.
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