Retired GP, who spent time in lockdown rummaging through ancient bones boxes, has identified a new species of dinosaur.
Jeremy Lockwood is a student at the University of Portsmouth and set himself the challenge of cataloguing all iguanodon bones discovered on the Isle of Wight. He discovered a rare "bulbous” nasal bone in a specimen he was sorting bones from the Natural History Museum of London and Dinosaur Isle Museum on the Isle of Wight.
He stated that "For more than 100 years, there had been only two types of dinosaurs on the Isle of Wight: the plant-eating Iguanodon Bernissartensis or Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis." "I believed subtle differences in bones would reveal a new species so I began to measure, photograph, and study each bone's anatomy."
After spending four years studying and unpacking bones boxes, he started to reconstruct the skull of a specimen which had been stored since 1978. He discovered several distinctive features that distinguished it.
Lockwood stated that the number of teeth was an indication. Mantellisaurus may have 23 or 24 teeth, but this one has 28. The bulbous nose was also a characteristic of this species, which is unlike the others that have straight noses. These and other minor differences make it a distinct species.
He said, "This discovery made lockdown one of the most joyful days."
The herbivorous dinosaur measured eight metres long and weighed in at around 900kg.
Jeremy Lockwood's research has shown that the most common dinosaurs found on the Isle of Wight (known as the 'cattle of Cretaceous') were not the only ones. Photograph by University of Portsmouth/PA
Lockwood and Professor David Martill, University of Portsmouth, have named Brighstoneus simmondsi as part of a study that was published in Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.
Brighstoneus is named for Brighstone, a village on the Isle of Wight that is near the excavation site. The latter part of the name is in honor of Keith Simmonds who is an amateur collector and was involved in excavating and finding the specimen.
This new species is a sign that there may have been more iguanodontian dinosaurs in the UK's Early Cretaceous than previously thought. It also suggests that the long-standing practice of assigning fossils on the Isle of Wight either to the Mantellisaurus or Iguanodon species should be reviewed. Lockwood stated that it seems unlikely that two animals could be identical for millions of years with no change.
Lockwood was part of the discovery of another species, the "hellheron," and said that the latest discoveries proved British dinosaurs weren't "done and done". "I believe we could be on the verge of a renaissance."
