Tokyo: Two preserved tooth fragment fossils of a prehistoric meat-eater dinosaur were discovered in a layer of earth, which is about 84 million years old, on the Nagasaki Peninsula.
Officials at the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum and the Nagasaki city board of education said that the fossils are thought to be from a dinosaur that was more than 7 meters long, the Japan Times reported.
However, they could not identify the species from just the fragments.
They also asserted that one of the fragments, which measures 35.4 mm by 26.8 mm by 11.2 mm and is one of the biggest fossils of a carnivorous dinosaur’s tooth ever found in Japan, forms roughly half of an estimated 6-cm-long tooth from the root.
The other piece is 34.2 mm long and 13.6 mm wide.
Officials said that the sharp protrusions show they were the teeth of a carnivore.
Chief researcher at the museum, Kazunori Miyata, found the fossils in July 2011 in the Mitsuze layer on the west coast of the peninsula.
The new fossils are currently on display at Sanwa Gyosei Center in Nagasaki until July 12 and then at the Nagasaki Science Museum until July 28.
ANI
