OKAYAMA — A US fossil in the care of a university museum here was from a Corythosaurus dinosaur, the first such specimen discovered outside of Canada, researchers have said.
“The discovery proved important in determining the distribution of Corythosaurus,” said Ryuji Takasaki, a vertebrate paleontology researcher at Okayama University of Science.
The university’s dinosaur research museum was put in charge of the fossil, which was unearthed from a farm in the US state of Montana in 1989.
Almost all skeletal components from head to tail had been preserved in excellent condition.
Fossilized remains of Corythosaurus have been found almost exclusively at Dinosaur Provincial Park in the Canadian province of Alberta.
The park’s geological formation extends south across the border into Montana.
But no evidence of Corythosaurus living in the United States had been discovered until now.
Corythosaurus, a 76-million-year-old “duck-billed” herbivore, appeared in large numbers during the second half of the Cretaceous. The hadrosaur had an 8-meter-long body and a large round crest on its head.
A problem in identifying the fossil at the Okayama Museum was that it lacked the characteristic crest.
The museum re-examined broken pieces of the dinosaur kept in a storage room. Bone fragments forming part of a crest were found and the specimen was identified as that of Corythosaurus.
“The discovery may help further understanding of the ecosystem at this time,” said Kentaro Chiba, senior lecturer in vertebrate paleontology at the university.
Okayama University of Science was entrusted with fossilized specimens, including the Corythosaurus, by the Hayashibara Museum of Natural Science in Okayama, which closed in 2015.
“Researching entrusted cultural property is our responsibility, so we feel rewarded for the latest achievement,” said Shinobu Ishigaki, director of the Museum of Dinosaur Research. “The specimen is on display at the museum for free and I would like a lot of people to see it.”
The discovery was published in the international specialist journal Anatomical Record.
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