Tyrannosaur Teeth Drive Rare Fossil Discover in England
Dinosaur bones have been found all over the globe, but the latest discovery involves an infamous creature that has left behind its teeth in the coastal England. Recent research has revealed that Tyrannosaurs lived in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex on the south coast of England. The December 2024 Papers in Paleontology study details how researchers came to the conclusion that dinosaurs were stomping along Bexhill on the Sea region 135 million year ago.
Theropods Along the Coast.
Researchers determined the existence of Tyrannosaurus along with members of the Velociraptor and spinosaur families. All of these dinosaurs were classified as theropods. They were mainly carnivorous. Researchers say that theropods are very rare in Cretaceous deposits of southern England. This makes the Bexhill-at-Sea dinos notable. The Isle of Wight is a popular destination for paleontologists. It’s a tiny island in the English Channel, and it has a wealth of dinosaur fossils. More than 20 different types of Early Cretaceous dinos, as well as fossils of prehistoric animals, have all been discovered on this island.
The importance of Theropod Teeth.
The dinosaur discoveries made in the last few decades can be traced back to theropod tooth collections found within sediment. The teeth are often the focus of studies involving prehistoric animals. A durable enamel coat helps teeth to fossilize, but enamel thickness varies among dinosaur species.
Dinosaur teeth have a tougher fossil than bones and they are preserved much more often. Chris Barker is the lead researcher of the study and a visiting scientist at Southampton University. He said that dinosaur teeth are often important when trying to reconstruct an ecosystem’s diversity.
There are many variations in theropods’ teeth, including their shape and size. They also have serrated edges, which helped them to tear apart prey. It can be difficult to assign isolated teeth from theropods, as different features develop independently in each lineage. We used a variety of methods to refine our results, resulting in more accurate classifications,” Lucy Handford said, co-author of this study and PhD student at the University of York.
“19459009” Fossil Location:
Researchers say that the tyrannosaurs teeth found in Ashdown Brickworks were a fortuitous discovery, since the group of dinosaurs had not been previously identified in sediments from this region and age. The fossils date back to the Valanginian Period (139.8-132.9% of the Early Cretaceous) and are from the Early Cretaceous. Ashdown Brickworks, part of Wadhurst clay formation is a Valanginian Age section of the Wealden group of rock strata in southern England. In a statement, Darren Naish said that southern England had an exceptional record of Cretaceous dinos. The sediment layers are unique globally in terms of their geological age, as well as the fossils contained within them.
Tyrannosaur relatives
Despite being formidable predators that hunted smaller dinosaurs or other reptiles on the floodplain, the Tyrannosaurs of Bexhill-on-Sea did not possess Tyrannosaurus Rex’s colossal size. According to the analysis of fossils they were a third the size of T. rex. The fossil evidence suggests that T. Rex lived on the western coast of North America. Fossils have been found in states such as Montana, South Dakota, and Canadian provinces including Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. T. rex and its relatives once roamed Asia in Mongolia, northern China, and the U.S.
Specimens from the Wadhurst clay formation, which are older than the Isle of Wight specimens, represent an important milestone in southern England’s paleontology. The researchers say their discovery helped to distinguish the theropods in this area, which had been poorly known.
Sources for Articles
Discovermagazine.com’s writers use high-quality peer-reviewed sources and studies for their articles. Our editors also review them for accuracy, scientific standards and editorial standards. The following sources were used to write this article.
- papers in Paleontology. Theropod diversity of lower English Wealden : Analysis of a tooth based fauna of the Wadhurst Clay Formation, Lower Cretaceous Valanginian via phylogenetic and discriminant methods. University of Alberta
- . What is the connection between dinosaurs and dentistry? Jack Knudson, assistant editor of Discover magazine with an interest in history and environmental science (19659019), is a student at Scripps College of Communication. He studied journalism at Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication and interned previously at Recycling Today magazine.