Japanese fossils reveal new armoured dinosaur
Researchers described Nipponopelta yezoensis from fossils found in Hokkaido more than thirty years ago.
A fossil from Hokkaido has been formally described as a new species of armoured dinosaur. The species was named Nipponopelta yezoensis and, according to the researchers, provides new clues about the distribution of these dinosaurs during the Cretaceous.
The fossils were found near Yūbari on Hokkaido, but remained the subject of research for decades. The description has now been published in Cretaceous Research. This is therefore not a discovery taken from the ground this month, but a formal scientific description of older material.
Nipponopelta belongs to the nodosaurs, a group of herbivores that could protect themselves from predators with bony plates and spines. According to the researchers, the material includes parts of the skull and other fragments of the skeleton. The remains are not complete enough to reconstruct the animal in every detail.
The species name refers to Japan and the old name for Hokkaido. The researchers from Hokkaido University and collaborating institutions call the animal the first formally named nodosaur from Japan. The find consequently expands the known distribution of this group.
The analysis points to similarities with nodosaurs from North America. From this, the researchers infer that ancestors may have migrated via a land bridge between North America and Asia. This is a phylogenetic hypothesis: the fossil does not demonstrate an actual migration route.
The proposed land bridge is the Bering Land Bridge, which connected parts of present-day Alaska and Russia during the Cretaceous. The geography of that period differed greatly from the modern world map. The interpretation is therefore a reconstruction based on age, anatomy and relatedness.
The study is peer-reviewed and has been published in a scientific journal. This makes the species description open to scrutiny, but does not make every conclusion definitive. New fossils or analyses may further refine the picture of nodosaur distribution.
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The species name, discovery location, publication and interpretation can be found in the university announcement and the scientific article. The text distinguishes the formal description from the speculation about migration.
- confirmed The species is called Nipponopelta yezoensis. — Named by Hokkaido University. source
- confirmed The fossils were found in Hokkaido and have been known for decades. — The primary announcement describes the research history of the material. source
- confirmed The study appeared in Cretaceous Research. — Scientific publication with DOI. source
- confirmed Ancestors may have migrated from North America to Asia via the Bering Land Bridge. — This is the researchers’ interpretation, presented as a hypothesis. source
Editor's note
The fossil was not newly discovered; the scientific description and naming are new. Migration via the Bering Land Bridge is a hypothesis from the phylogenetic analysis.Sources
- Hokkaido dinosaur fossil named Nipponopelta yezoensis — Hokkaido University
- Rare armored dinosaur found in Japan may have ancestors that migrated across a land bridge — Live Science
- A new nodosaurid ankylosaur from Japan — Cretaceous Research
More on this in Dutch media
- AD — „dinosauriërs paleontologie”
- de Volkskrant — „dinosauriërs paleontologie”
- RTL Nieuws — „dinosauriërs paleontologie”