In Japan, discovered an 8-meter dinosaur skeleton age of 72 million years

Japanese scientists officially announced that an 8-meter dinosaur skeleton was found in the country. The first bones of a giant dinosaur, which belongs to the duckbill dinosaurs, or hadrosaurs, were found in the Hokkaido mountains back in 2013. Excavations near the town of Mukawa made it possible to restore more than half of the skeleton of the "dragon of Mukawa" - Mukawaryu, as archaeologists called him. The skeleton is about 72 million years old.

Beaks, combs and tails

Platypus dinosaurs, or Hadrosaurids, lived in the late Cretaceous period (from 100 to 66 million years ago) and got their name because of the flattened shape of the jaw, resembling a duck beak. Looking at these big guys, you kind of understand where the legends of Godzilla come from - if they weren’t harmless herbivorous creatures (and the duck beak was ideal for chewing leaves).

Moreover, they are considered one of the most enduring species of dinosaurs. Hadrosaurs moved mainly in large herds. Perhaps the "craving for the team" helped them spread to Asia, as well as get to Europe, North and South America and even Antarctica (the climate on the icy continent was then more sparing).

In total, the Hadrosaurids family has about 50 varieties of different sizes and shapes. Some had large hollow ridges on their heads - they belong to the subfamily Lambeosaurinae. It is believed that through special holes Lambeosaurinae made loud noises, reporting danger or even scaring away enemies. True, Mukavaru, found in Hokkaido, most likely belongs to another subfamily, which did without extra growths on the head.

The third is not superfluous

Hadrosaurs were often found on various continents. But for East Asia, the find is unique in its own way: the region generally cannot boast of the large number of "terrible lizards" found. The first full hadrosaur skeleton in these places was discovered in 1936 in marine sediments in southern Sakhalin and was called the Nipponosaurus. He still remains the only representative of his species found.

Photo: Reconstruction of the skeleton of Nipponosaurus at the exhibition center Makuhari Massae (Chiba, Japan)

In modern Japan, Mukavaru immediately became a champion: this is the first complete skeleton of a Late Cretaceous herbivore found in marine sediments in Japan. In addition, he easily walked around the size of the Fukuvenator Paradoxus ("Hunter from Fukui Prefecture"), or Fukuizaur. This carnivorous dinosaur of the early Cretaceous period (from 145 to 100 million years ago), discovered in the city of Katsuyama in Fukui Prefecture, was only 2.5 meters in length.

Scientists continue to search for the bones of Mukavar to collect a more complete skeleton and more accurately determine what kind of family of Hadrosaurids it belongs to.