Dinosaur teeth from a fearsome meat-eater, the tyrannosaur, have revealed exciting new evidence about the community of predators that roamed the East Sussex in the Cretaceous period, 135 million years ago.
It's been labelled as a ground-breaking find because tyrannosaurs – powerful hunters with a large heads, and jaws equipped with serrated teeth for eating flesh – are very rare in the Cretaceous sediments of southern England.
A retired man discovered the fossils in the Bexhill region of East Sussex. They were later identified by a team of researchers led by the University of Southampton.
A community of predators belonging to different dinosaur groups – including tyrannosaurs, spinosaurs and members of the velociraptor family – were identified by the study.
Spinosaurs were semi-aquatic dinosaurs with large sail-like vertebrae, and the velociraptor family featured agile, sickle-clawed dinosaurs.
Identifying predators
The researchers led by the University of Southampton used several techniques to analyse the fossils.
They collaborated with colleagues at London’s Natural History Museum, the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, and the Museo Miguel Lillo De Ciencias Naturales in Argentina.
“Dinosaur teeth are tough fossils and are usually preserved more frequently than bone. For that reason, they’re often crucial when we want to reconstruct the diversity of an ecosystem”, says Dr Chris Barker, visiting researcher at the University of Southampton and lead author of the research.
“Rigorous methods exist that can help identify teeth with high accuracy. Our results suggest the presence of spinosaurs, mid-sized tyrannosaurs and tiny dromaeosaurs – velociraptor-like theropods – in these deposits”.
Assigning isolated teeth to theropods – types of carnivorous dinosaurs that walked on their back legs and had short front legs – is challenging. This is why the team employed various methods to help refine findings, leading to more confident classifications.
“It’s highly likely that reassessment of theropod teeth in museum stores elsewhere will bring up additional discoveries,” says Lucy Handford, co-author of the paper.
A ground-breaking discovery
Dr Darren Naish, a co-author of the study, added: “These East Sussex dinosaurs are older than those from the better-known Cretaceous sediments of the Isle of Wight. They are mysterious and poorly known by comparison. We’ve hoped for decades to find out which theropod groups lived here, so the conclusions of our new study are really exciting.”
Public participation
The discovery at Ashdown Brickworks wouldn't have happened without the tireless collecting of retired quarryman Dave Brockhurst.
Dave has uncovered thousands of specimens, ranging from partial dinosaur skeletons to tiny shark teeth. He has donated around 5000 of his discoveries to Bexhill Museum. Theropods are exceptionally rare at the site, and Dave has only found ten or so specimens there so far.
Several of the specimens are on display at Bexhill Museum in East Sussex. University of Southampton’s Institute for Life Sciences funded the research.
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Main image: Getty Images