Pensioner Unearths Iguanodontid Bone in Sunderland Garden
Iguanodon
fossils, (a type of dinosaur), although rare, do sometimes get found in
southern England, places such as East Sussex and the Isle of Wight for
example, but to have an Iguanodontid vertebra turn up in a garden 300
miles further north from where most of the UK Iguanodontid fossils come
from is bizarre.
The fossilised bone about the size of a football
has been identified as belonging to an Early Cretaceous Ornithopod
Dinosaur - an Iguanodontid, but the single bone and its unusual location
makes it very difficult to tie down to a specific genus.
Palaeontologists
remain puzzled as to how a bone from a Cretaceous dinosaur ended up in a
pensioner's back garden in Sunderland. Scientists had been informed of
this remarkable discovery and the finding of a dinosaur bone in garden
in north-east England is amazing, this is one of the last places on
Earth where you would go to look for Cretaceous dinosaur bones.
The
pensioner, who wishes to remain anonymous took the specimen to a local
museum, where experts confirmed it was a dinosaur bone. Staff at the
Natural History Museum (London) have confirmed this and concluded that
the bone probably came from a large Iguanodon, a herbivorous dinosaur
from the Early Cretaceous.
How Did a Dinosaur End Up in Sunderland?
How
the bone came to be in Sunderland remains a mystery. The underlying
strata is much older than rocks which contain dinosaur bones this means
the bone must have been deposited there later on.
Many of the
Iguanodontid fossils unearthed in the UK were found in the East Sussex
area, more than 300 miles to the south of Sunderland. They lived 130-115
million years ago, at a time when southern England was a warm, lush
tropical paradise in which dinosaurs and Pterosaurs flourished. Experts
will never know how the bone made it to Wearside, but glacial
disturbance or human interference are considered most likely. Rocks
could have been transported by glacial action and re-deposited, or
perhaps this specimen was found in southern England and brought up north
by an amateur fossil hunter.
Local Museum Staff Amazed by Discovery
Staff
at the local museum in Sunderland stated that they were very grateful
to our museum visitor for bringing this amazing find in to them. It will
always remain a mystery as to how it found its way there, and if the
pensioner hadn't been digging up their garden it could have lain
undiscovered.
The person who found it wishes to remain anonymous,
but has kindly agreed to loan it to Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens
so that the people of the region can enjoy this unusual find. They can
have their very own "Sunderland Dinosaur".
Most of the underlying
strata in the Wearside area dates from the Late Palaeozoic era, being
composed of mainly limestones, mudstones and sandstones dating from the
Permian period. There is a small band of Permian rocks which run roughly
in a line from Nottingham in the East Midlands, northwards to the city
of Sunderland before disappearing out under the North Sea, these rocks
are largely devoid of fossils.
There have been other, occasional
reports of dinosaur bones turning up in some very unusual places, for
example, a scientist literally tripped over a number of caudal vertebrae
belonging to an Edmontosaurus when inspecting a motocross trackway in
Alberta - you just never know what might turn up. However, to find a
dinosaur fossil bone in a garden in Sunderland must go down as one of
the more bizarre locations to find the remains of a dinosaur.
0 comments:
Post a Comment