Today, I’ll write about dinosaurs from Fukui.
Near the museum, there is Kitadani Formation, the geographic formation of Aptian, Early Cretaceous. Then, there is the swamp near the river and a lot of lives like dinosaurs, crocodiles and turtles lived there.
Fukuisaurus tetoriensis is the basal hadrosauriformes. It is relative to Iguanodon, but it doesn’t have pleurokinesis, the character seen in hadrosauriformes’ maxilla to be moved to outside when they bit.
Koshisaurus katsuyama is the basal hadrosauroidea. “Koshi” is the old name of the area including Fukui. Both the Fukuisaurus and Koshisaurus lived together. It shows that there was so rich environment then.
Fukuiraptor kitadaniensis is the basal megaraptora, but its reconstructed skeleton was based on Sinraptor because it was thought to be relative to it at first.
Fukuivenator paradoxus is the coelurosaur dinosaur. It has both the old and new points. Its teeth are not serrated so it would be omnivorous. For research of its inner ear, it had good sence of balance and hearing.
Fukuititan nipponensis is the titanosauriform. It is the biggest animal from Kitadani Formation.
Goniopholid crocodile is the first fossil from Kitadani Formation. Its back teeth are roundish, so it would eat hard prey like shellfish and fish with hard scale.
There was variety of turtles and tortoises like Adocus, Basilemys, sinemydidae, softshell turtle and testudinoidea lived there. Adocus, Basilemys and softshell turtle are the oldest record in the world.
Thank you for reading! Next time, I’ll write about dinosaurs from Japan and Asia.
Japanese Dino-mania 