Small Iguanodon Fossil Sheds Light on Dino Diversity
It lived in Japan long before Japan was an island The post Small Iguanodon Fossil Sheds Light on Dino Diversity appeared first on Nautilus .
A small Iguanodon fossil discovered in Japan sheds light on the diversity of dinosaur species during the Cretaceous period. The bone, a right sternum half, belonged to a dinosaur significantly smaller than its larger relatives, measuring less than 10 feet in length. The fossil, preserved in mudstone and sandstone from the Ashizawa Formation on the eastern coast of northeastern Honshu, was initially overlooked in museum collections for over two decades.
Researchers from the University of Tsukuba, along with an international team of experts, studied the bone and determined it could belong to a new species or a juvenile member of an existing species. This discovery suggests that iguanodons and their relatives experienced growing diversity in prehistoric Asia during the Cretaceous, challenging previous assumptions about the size and distribution of these duck-billed dinosaurs.
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