The seven-metre-long predator, dubbed Lightning Claw, was announced last week in the scientific journal Gondwana Research, sparking a flurry of media attention.

Lightning Claw is the oldest megaraptorid dinosaur known  and Australia’s second most complete carnivorous dinosaur after Australovenator (also fondly known as Banjo) from Winton in Queensland.

Lead researcher and dinosaur expert Dr Phil Bell of the University of New England, Armidale, says Lightning Claw challenges ideas about the origins of megaraptorids, a group of theropod dinosaurs known mostly from Argentina.

“The evidence now points to an Australian origin for this group - so they first appeared here and branched out across Gondwana, colonising other parts of the supercontinent,” said Dr Bell.

Opalised bones of the massive predator were donated to the Australian Opal Centre by opal miners Rob and Debbie Brogan in 2005, under the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program. 

They consisted mostly of grey common opal.

Included were a huge metatarsal (foot bone) and other foot, arm, rib and hip bones - many only fragments, and some still covered by claystone.

The fossil’s significance was immediately clear to Lightning Ridge palaeontologist Dr Elizabeth Smith, who dubbed it the ‘Brogan Dinosaur’. 

Queensland Museum palaeontologist Dr Scott Hocknull, who visited Lightning Ridge in 2011, was also impressed.

Fossil preparator Matthew Goodwin then revealed one claystone-covered piece to be a huge claw bone, providing more clues and earning the animal another nickname, the ‘Ridge Ripper’.

“This dinosaur probably ran down its prey and used its arms like grappling hooks,” said Dr Bell last week.

Dr Bell is certain the Brogan Dinosaur is a new species.

However, critical parts of the fossil were lost or destroyed during the mining process, and it will not be given a formal species name until more complete material is found.

Meanwhile, the Ridge Ripper, aka Lightning Claw - Australia’s newest and largest carnivorous dinosaur - proudly holds aloft the flag of great Australian dinosaur discoveries, promising further exciting announcements from the fossil collection of the Australian Opal Centre.