New Species of Dinosaur That Lived 125 Million Years Ago Identified; ‘Most Complete’ Skeleton Recovered in a Century

A 125-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton, noted to be one of the most complete assemblages of bones discovered in the last century, was excavated from an island off the southern coast of England .

Knewz.com has learned that the creature it belonged to, Comptonatus chasei , lived in a period when ocean levels were higher and continents were divided by small seas.

Said Comptonatus chasei – named after a relic hunter Nick Chase who discovered the 149-bone skeleton – is believed to be a herbivorous dinosaur—the remains of which were first found in 2013.

Despite it being excavated (on the Isle of Wight) more than a decade ago, it was only identified recently.

Jeremy Lockwood, a retired GP and associate scientist at the United Kingdom ’s Museum of Natural History , helped with the excavation.

He weighed in on the find saying:

“It (the discovery) helps us understand more about the different types of dinosaurs that lived in England in the early Cretaceous.”

“This adds to recent research that shows that Wessex was one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems.”

Lockwood confirmed the weight of the prehistoric animal saying:

“This animal would have been around a tonne, about the size of a large male American bison.”

“Evidence from fossil footprints found nearby shows it was likely to be a herding animal, so possibly large herds of these heavy dinosaurs may have been thundering around if spooked by predators on the floodplains over 120m years ago.”

A paper published in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology indicated that the creature’s pubic hip bone was around the size of a dinner plate.

Not quite clear on why the structural component was so large, Lockwood speculated, saying:

“It [the bone] was probably for muscle attachments, which might mean its mode of locomotion was a bit different, or it could have been to support the stomach contents more effectively, or even have been involved in how the animal breathed, but all of these theories are somewhat speculative.”

When the skeleton was first found, the dinosaur was thought to be the three-toed herbivorous Mantellisaurus, but certain characteristics corrected this way of thinking .

Lockwood noted that the Comptonatus chasei had “unique features in its skull, teeth, and other parts of its body.”

He also observed that “its lower jaw has a straight bottom edge, whereas most iguanodontians [large plant-eating dinosaurs from the same period believed to have walked on all four legs] have a jaw that curves downwards.”

Lockwood praised Chase for the find saying: “Nick had a phenomenal nose for finding dinosaur bones. He collected fossils daily in all weathers and donated them to museums,” per The Guardian .

The discovery comes a year after the largest known carnivorous dinosaur skeleton was found on the same island.

“The size of the specimen is impressive. It is one of the biggest, and possibly the biggest, known land predator ever to stalk Europe ,” said PhD paleontology student at the University of Southampton, Chris Barker, via the Natural History Museum .