Lambeosaur found in Japan

[bh480@scn.org]

From; Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org

In cast this news item has not been mentioned here:
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10340316%
255E1702,00.html

Duck-billed dinosaur fossil found
>From correspondents in Tokyo, Japan
August 4, 2004
A MAN hiking in the woods of southwestern Japan has 
discovered one of the country's richest fossil bounties - 
six bones believed to be from a single dinosaur that 
became extinct some 70 million years ago, a researcher 
said today.

The fragments of teeth and bone are thought be from a 
Lambeosaurus, a type of Hadrosaur - a so-called duck-
billed dinosaur, said Haruo Saegusa, a researcher at the 
Museum of Nature and Human Activities in Sumoto. 
They were found near Sumoto city on Awaji, a small island 
off the coast of the western city of Kobe, about 435 
kilometres west of Tokyo, he said. 
"It's unusual to find so many fossils from what appears to 
have been a single animal. Normally, we'll only find one 
or two, maybe," Mr Saegusa said. 
Japan's biggest finds of dinosaur fossils mainly have 
turned up in central Gifu prefecture, northern Fukui and 
Hokkaido prefectures or Kumamoto prefecture, on the 
southernmost main island of Kyushu. 
A 55-year-old construction worker and amateur 
paleontologist came upon the beak bone, teeth, vertebrae 
and tail vertebrae of the dinosaur while he was hiking in 
the woods in May, Mr Saegusa said. The man consulted a 
friend, who contacted researchers at the museum, where 
tests were run to confirm the authenticity, he said. 
Among the largest of the fossils is a jaw bone measuring 
53 centimetres long and 19 centimetres wide, Saegusa said. 
The other fossils are between 7 centimetres and 23 
centimetres. 
More than 10 metres long and weighing around 3.9 tons, 
hadrosaurs lived about 78 million years ago and survived 
by eating plants and avoiding carnivores. 
They may have lived from Alaska to Australia and 
Antarctica. 

The Associated Press