The neck bone of a crocodile-faced dinosaur species has been found in Australia, scientists said, showing the creature roamed much further than previously thought.

The vertebra of a Spinosaurus was found near southern Victoria’s Cape Otway lighthouse and belonged to a relatively small two-metre beast which lived about 105 million years ago, said researcher Thomas Rich.

A “spine lizard” with a long, narrow snout like a crocodile, the Spinosaurus was known to live in Europe, South America and South Africa, Mr Rich said, but this was the first time its remains had been discovered in Australia.

“The fact that they existed in Australia changes our understanding of the evolution of this group of dinosaurs,” said Mr Rich, who is also curator at the Muesum Victoria.

Published in Biology Letters, Mr Rich’s paper on the discovery says it also challenges the idea that Australia’s fauna was endemic, or unique, in the Early Cretaceous period.

“The same groups of dinosaurs were widespread when the earth was once a supercontinent,” he remarked.