Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London have named a new dinosaur genus and species from fossils found at a brickworks in Surrey. The four-legged plant eater, called Paludohadros proudlovii, lived around 125 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Period.
The partial skeleton was unearthed in 2001 and later donated to the museum. Researchers now say it belongs to a previously unknown early-diverging hadrosauroid iguanodontian, a group of plant-eating dinosaurs known for the spikes on their thumbs.
It is the first iguanodontian formally named from the Weald Clay Formation at Smokejacks Brickworks, according to the study published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. The animal measured about 5 metres long and weighed an estimated 1.5 to 2 tons, roughly the size of a modern rhinoceros.
The bones had not fully matured, so scientists believe the individual was a juvenile that could have grown to twice that size. At the time it lived, southern England was covered in muddy wetlands. That setting gave the dinosaur its name: palus is Latin for swamp.
The species name honours Will Proudlove, a former manager of the brickworks who died aged 35 shortly before the remains were excavated.
Source: Phys.org
