THE world is in a “golden age” of dinosaur discovery, with Scotland becoming a leading global centre of research in the giant beasts who roamed the earth millions of years ago.
Dr Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist at Edinburgh University, revealed that around one new species of dinosaur is being discovered every week around the world.
The latest finding – a bird-like species preserved almost intact on a Chinese building site – was unveiled last week.
And it is thought fossils revealing new insights into dinosaur species could also be lying yet undiscovered on the Isle of Skye, one of the few sites in the world where remains of the mid-Jurassic period have been found.
The new species uncovered in China has been named the Tongtianlong limosus, meaning ‘muddy dragon on the road to heaven’. The two-legged animal belongs to the oviraptorosaur family of feathered dinosaurs, characterised by having short, toothless heads and sharp beaks.
It was uncovered during excavations on a building site, lying on its front with its wings and neck outstretched. Scientists believe it may have died in this pose after becoming stuck in mud around 66-72 million years ago.
Brusatte, who identified the fossil together with researchers from China, said: “There are more new species (of dinosaurs) now than there has ever been before – we are in a golden age.
“Right now there are around 50 new species a year around the world – that means on average about once a week, someone is finding a totally new type of dinosaur. That is just a crazy pace and it has been going on for about five or six years now.”
Brusatte, of the University of Edinburgh’s school of geosciences, said the discoveries were being fuelled by more researchers collecting fossils, increased access to remoter parts of the world and public awareness of dinosaurs being fuelled by popular cultures such as the Jurassic Park films.
He said technological advances such as scanning techniques and powerful microscopes helped in the analysis of fossils, but finding them was still an “old-fashioned game of going to the right place, walking around and having a good pair of eyes”.
One site where it is hoped more fossils will be uncovered is the Isle of Skye, much of which was under water during the Jurassic period. Last year the Edinburgh University researchers announced 170 million-year-old footprints from sauropods – likely distant relatives of brontosaurus and diplodocus – had been found.
A new species of ichthyosaur, a large dolphin-like marine animal that grew up to 14 feet long, was also been identified from fossil fragments unearthed from the island.
Brusatte said: “We know these Scottish fossils can be really important – they are some of the only fossils anywhere in the world from the middle part of the Jurassic period, about 170 million years ago.
“This was a really interesting time in evolution - the first tyrannosaurs, the first really colossal long-necked dinosaurs and probably the first birds. But there are hardly any of these fossils anywhere. Scotland happens to be one of those rare place. I think the potential is huge.”
He added the National Geographic Society had recently provided a research grant to fund his team’s fieldwork for the next year, which showed Scotland was “on the global radar”.
There had been a shift in thinking, he said, in the last couple of decades about the typical image of dinosaurs as more became known about them.
“We used to be taught that dinosaurs were these big, dumb, lumbering beasts that were just sitting around waiting to become extinct,” he said. "Now we know so many dinosaurs would have been more similar to birds than reptiles or lizards – they were covered in feathers, they were smart, they could move fast. They were very interesting animals.”
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