Possible Tyrannosaurus Fossil Found in Hokkaido

June 20, 2018

Mikasa, Hokkaido- A dinosaur fossil that may be part of a tyrannosaurus has been found in Ashibetsu, Hokkaido, northern Japan, two Hokkaido museums said Wednesday.

Amateur collector Hidetoshi Kogawa, 62, found the fossil of a vertebra, which is part of the spine, in 2016 in a geological layer formed 86.3 million to 89.8 million years ago during the late Cretaceous Period, according to the Hokkaido University Museum and the Mikasa City Museum.

Following analysis of its shape and internal structure, researchers presume that the cylinder-shaped fossil, which is 9 centimeters long, 6 centimeters high and 5 centimeters wide, is a bone of a middle-size tyrannosaurus with a body about 6 meters long.

Tyrannosaurus species are said to have become larger in size in the late Cretaceous Period. But only a limited number of tyrannosaurus fossils of the period have been found so far.

"This is an important discovery that may help unravel the riddle of how they became large," Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, associate professor at the Hokkaido University Museum, told a news conference in Mikasa, near Ashibetsu.

Kogawa, who lives in Heguri, Nara Prefecture, western Japan, expressed his surprise and joy at the discovery, saying he found the fossil when looking for shark bones. Jiji Press