Japan's Largest Complete Dinosaur Skeleton is a Duck-Billed Dinosaur
Posted on June 6, 2017
Japan's largest complete dinosaur skeleton has been discovered an unearthed. The fossil is of an 8-meter long duck-billed dinosaur. A complete fossil in science is when over 50 percent of the bones have been recovered.
The 72 million year old fossilized skeleton has been nicknamed Mukawaryu (Mukawa dragon). The Hadrosauridae fossil was found in the Hobetsu district of Mukawa Town. The excavation has been underway since 2013. The research team was led by scientists from Hokkaido University and Hobetsu Museum in Mukawa. Hadrosaurids were common during the late Late Cretaceous Period and thrived on the Eurasian, North and South American continents as well as at Antarctica.
Dr. Yoshitsugu Kobayashi of the research team says in the announcement, "We first discovered a part of the fossilized Mukawaryu skeleton in 2013, and after a series of excavations, we believe we have cleaned more than half of the bones the dinosaur had, making it clear that it is a complete skeleton."
The image below shows the fossilized caudal vertebra of Mukawaryu.