The find, with 149 bones, is the most complete dinosaur skeleton found in Britain in a century, according to a report by the British news agency PA.
The animal, whose species was named “Comptonatus Chasei”, was found on the Isle of Wight, an island in the south of England known for its rich fossil deposits. It is the eighth dinosaur species to be discovered on the Isle of Wight in the past five years.
“Comptonatus chasei”
The name is a combination of the location where it was found, Compton Bay, and the name of the late discoverer, Nick Chase. The dinosaur – a herbivore that weighed a ton and was about the size of a male bison – lived about 125 million years ago.
“Comptonatus Chasei” belonged to the group of Iguanodontia and probably lived in herds. This was suggested by dinosaur footprints found nearby, Jeremy Lockwood said, according to PA. “It is possible that large herds of these dinosaurs caused the flood plains here to shake when they were disturbed by predators,” the researcher said.
The doctoral student studied the fossil at the University of Portsmouth. According to him, the find shows that the Isle of Wight and surrounding areas were once among the most diverse ecosystems on the planet.
From the discovery, which was published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, scientists hope to gain information on how habitats recovered after a mass extinction at the end of the Jurassic period. The fossil indicates a rapid evolution of iguanodont dinosaurs, PA quoted paleontologist Susannag Maidment from the National History Museum in London as saying.
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Source: Nachrichten
