A tooth from a 140-million-year-old ‘bird-hipped’ dinosaur has been uncovered in Malaysia, researchers announced on Thursday.
The beast is referred to as ‘bird-hipped’ because of the
bird-like hip structure, so the tooth belonged to a dinosaur of
the herbivorous Ornithischian order.
However, the exact species of the dinosaur remains unknown. The
group of dinosaurs into which the skeleton can be classed also
contains the triceratops.
Additionally, its existence could provide clues to the
whereabouts of the remainder of the dinosaur’s skeleton.
“It is plausible that large dinosaur fossil deposits still
remain in Malaysia,” lead researcher Masatoshi Sone from the
University of Malaysia told AFP. Sone said that the dinosaur
could have been as big as a horse.
“We started the program to look for dinosaur fossils two
years ago. We are very excited to have found the tooth of the
dinosaurian order called Ornithischian in central Pahang
state,” he said.
Japan's Waseda University and Kumamoto University collaborated on
the project.
The tooth is 12mm long and 10.5 mm wide and was found in a
sedimentary rock formation by the team. It was uncovered nearby
where a further Malaysian dinosaur fossil was discovered in 2012.
The first was at least 75 million years old, and belonged to a
fish-eating semi-aquatic creature in the Spinosaurid family.
However, no exact details as to the location of the discovery are
being provided in order to preserve details.