Paleontologists and a former quarry worker have discovered evidence of 135-million-year-old tyrannosaurs on the southeastern English coast for the first time.
Retired quarryman Dave Brockhurst, who has spent the last 30 years uncovering fossils, found the teeth in the East Sussex town of Bexhill-on-Sea.
The scientists also concluded that other carnivorous species roamed the area, including spinosaurs and members of the Velociraptor family.
The theropod teeth vary in shape and size, as well as their characteristics. The fossils were analyzed with artificial intelligence and other methods by the University of Southampton and other institutions in England and Argentina.The tyrannosaur species in the area would have been around a third of the size of the famous Tyrannosaurus rex.
“Southern England has an exceptionally good record of Cretaceous dinosaurs, and various sediment layers here are globally unique in terms of geological age and the fossils they contain,” Dr. Darren Naish, a co-author of the study, said.
“These East Sussex dinosaurs are older than those from the better-known Cretaceous sediments of the Isle of Wight, and are mysterious and poorly known by comparison,” he added. “We’ve hoped for decades to find out which theropod groups lived here, so the conclusions of our new study are really exciting.”
“Dinosaur teeth are tough fossils and are usually preserved more frequently than bone. For that reason, they’re often crucial when we want to reconstruct the diversity of an ecosystem”, Dr. Chris Barker, visiting researcher at the University of Southampton, explained in a statement.
Several of the specimens are on display at Bexhill Museum in East Sussex.
