New species of UK dinosaur was 8 metres long with a bulbous nose

The Isle of Wight successful the UK was erstwhile location to an ecosystem affluent successful dinosaurs, including Brighstoneus simmondsi, an 8-metre-long comparative of Iguanodon

Life 11 November 2021

By Riley Black

Reconstruction of the caput of Brighstoneus simmondsi

John Sibbick

Not each caller dinosaur taxon are caller finds from the field. The latest to measurement onto the palaeontological country was primitively excavated successful 1978 connected the Isle of Wight successful the UK, but was confused with its much celebrated comparative Iguanodon for decades until researchers took a 2nd look.

The astir 128 million-year-old dinosaur was recovered arsenic an accumulation of bones including immoderate from the skull, spine and hips. All that worldly was capable for Jeremy Lockwood astatine the University of Portsmouth, UK, and his colleagues to sanction the dinosaur Brighstoneus simmondsi, honouring the adjacent colony of Brighstone and the dinosaur’s discoverer, Keith Simmonds.

In the expansive span of the dinosaur household tree, the astir 8-metre-long Brighstoneus is an iguanodont related to the thumb-spiked Iguanodon itself. In fact, the household resemblance partially obscured the dinosaur’s identity. Various iguanodont bones person been attributed to Iguanodon, but lone precocious person palaeontologists begun to realise that galore of these animals were physically chiseled and lived astatine antithetic times.

Some of the astir salient features that people Brighstoneus arsenic a caller taxon are successful the dinosaur’s skull. “An evident quality that distinguishes Brighstoneus is the bulbous nose,” says Lockwood, arsenic good arsenic a greater fig of teeth successful its little jaw.

The dinosaur lived astir 4 cardinal years earlier than a related animal, called Mantellisaurus, that has besides been recovered successful the aforesaid area.

“Palaeontology decidedly went done a lumping period, wherever everything vaguely akin to Iguanodon got assigned to that dinosaur,” says Karen Poole astatine the New York Institute of Technology. Brighstoneus, however, genuinely does look to beryllium caller and indicates that determination were galore much iguanodonts than antecedently known.

“This has prompted a large reappraisal of existing material,” says Lockwood, and aboriginal indications are that determination are adjacent much taxon awaiting find successful depository drawers.

Journal reference: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2021.1978005

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