Spectacular dinosaur as big as school bus unearthed

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

A spectacular dinosaur as big as a school bus has been unearthed on the Isle of Wight in England.

It is the third new species from the popular holiday getaway to be described - in just a few weeks and could hail a 'renaissance' in British dinosaur identification.

The island, famous for sandy beaches and seaside promenades, has also been dubbed 'Dinosaur Island' as more dinosaur bones have been found there than anywhere else in Europe.

The latest find shows diversity of the prehistoric beasts was even greater than previously believed.

Named Brighstoneus simmondsi, the herbivore reached 26 feet long and weighed almost a ton.

It lived 125 million years ago and was a close relative of iconic Iguanodon and Mantellisaurus.

The Isle of Wight's position at the time was roughly where Gibraltar is now.

The animal's huge skull was dug up near Brighstone Bay on the southwest coast by amateur palaeontologist Keith Simmonds in 1978.

Iguanodontian bones from the Early Cretaceous were assigned to Mantellisaurus or Iguanodon - depending if they were gracile or robust.

But recent scans of the specimen identified several unique traits distinguishing it from both.

Lead author Dr. Jeremy Lockwood, of Portsmouth University, said: "For me, the number of teeth was a sign.

"Mantellisaurus has 23 or 24, but this has 28. It also had a bulbous nose, whereas the other species have very straight noses.

"Altogether, these and other small differences made it very obviously a new species."

The study in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology suggests the UK was home to far more iguanodontian dinosaurs than thought.

Simply assuming specimens from this period are either Iguanodon or Mantellisaurus must change, said Lockwood.

"We're looking at six, maybe seven million years of deposits. I think the genus lengths have been overestimated in the past," he explained.

"‘If that's the case on the island, we could be seeing many more new species.

"It seems so unlikely to just have two animals being exactly the same for millions of years without change."

Iguanodon was 30 feet long, stood six-and-a-half feet tall at the hip and weighed four to five tons.

Mantellisaurus was smaller - about 23 feet long and weighing around three quarters of a ton

Co-author Dr. Susannah Maidment, of London's Natural History Museum, said: "The describing of this new species shows there is clearly a greater diversity of iguanodontian dinosaurs in the Early Cretaceous of the UK than previously realized.

"It's also showing the century-old paradigm that gracile iguanodontian bones found on the island belong to Mantellisaurus and large elements belong to Iguanodon can no longer be substantiated."

The Isle of Wight has long been associated with dinosaurs - yielding specimens that led to Sir Richard Owen coining the term Dinosauria.

Identification of Brighstoneus simmondsi could lead to the material being re-assessed.

Lockwood said: "British dinosaurs are certainly not something that's done and dusted at all. I think we could be on to a bit of a renaissance."

In September the same team unveiled two new species of carnivorous dinosaurs from the Isle of Wight.

Named 'riverbank hunter' and the 'hell heron' after the environment in which they lived, they belonged to a group called spinosaurids.

They are thought to have roamed what is now the island around 129 million years ago.

Last month they also found a chicken-sized ancestor of T Rex in a quarry in Pant-y-ffynnon in South Wales.

The fossilized remains dating back 215 million years represent the UK's earliest known theropod dinosaur.

Dinosaur Isle in Sandown on the Isle of Wight is Britain's first purpose built dinosaur museum and visitor attraction.