Dinosaur bone found in Yatsushiro (Kumamoto prefecture Japan) could be the oldest in Japan

[David in Japan]

Here is the article but as it is written in Japanese, I will translate it roughly.

 

 

https://this.kiji.is/461667067532395617?c=92619697908483575

 

 

 

Japanese oldest dinosaur remains have been found in Yatsushiro.

 

2 days ago, the professor Naomi Ikegami from the Mifune Dinosaur Museum has revealed at the Japanese paleontological society annual meeting the discovery of the oldest remains of a Japanese dinosaur.

 

The fossil (a 8cm long, 4cm wide rib) has been found in Kumamoto prefecture, Yatsushiro city (near Sakamoto village) by a 65 years old former teacher named Mr. Murakami in 2014.

It was discovered during a survey conducted by the Mifune Dinosaur Museum and recovered from the Kawaguchi formation.

 

The Kawaguchi formation is a 40 km wide early cretaceous formation (- 133Myo, Hauterivian) composed mainly of brackish strata, which yield abundant brackish conditional molluscus fossils, and intercalates shallow marine strata, which yield marine conditional molluscus fossils. 

 

According to the professor Ikegami, as the elliptical cross section of the bone is long and thin and as the width of the abdominal side spreads toward the tip, it matches the characteristics of a theropod's rib. It was estimated that this rib fragment would be part of a 8 to 10 meter long dinosaur.

 

The fossil, the first of its kind found in Yatsushiro has bolstered hope to find new dinosaur localities in the Kumamoto prefecture which already the richest in Japan.

 

The specimen will be show to the public at Mifune Dinosaur Museum from the 29th of January. 

 

 

 

 

 

[David in Japan]

Here is some pictures of the fossil which is now part of the Mifune Dinosaur Museum exhibit.

 

 

 

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Nice stuff! Thanks for sharing - always enjoy hearing about new discoveries from the Cretaceous of Japan

-Christian