First herbivorous ornithischian dinosaur fossil from Malaysia
- Date:
- November 21, 2014
- Source:
- University of Malaya
- Summary:
- Palaeontologists have confirmed the presence of another important dinosaur fossil in Pahang, Malaysia.
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UM’s palaeontologists, Masatoshi Sone and Teng Yu He, reveal that the dinosaur remain is identified to be a tooth of an ornithischian dinosaur, known herbivorous. The new dinosaur tooth (UM10580) is about 13 mm long and 10.5 mm wide in preserved dimension. It is medium to large size for an herbivorous ornithischian tooth.
The tooth has a defined neck and a large expanded crown with a cingulum, a thick ridge round the base of the crown, indicative of an ornithischian tooth. The new material was discovered from a Cretaceous sedimentary rock formation in Pahang, where the carnivorous spinosaurid teeth were reported earlier this year.
In addition to the last carnivorous dinosaur discovery, the present find implies the fact that there was an established vegetated terrestrial ecosystem in Peninsular Malaysia during the Cretaceous period (65–145 million years ago) of late Mesozoic time.
It is plausible that large dinosaur fossil deposits still remain in Malaysia. UM’s research team has currently carried out extensive field investigation around the country that may disclose more significant finds in a near future.
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