Scientists have found a new species of dinosaur the size of the American bison. Photo

Scientists have discovered the skeleton of a new species of dinosaur that were the same size as American bison. Archaeologists stumbled upon the valuable find on the English Isle of Wight.

The specimen was excavated from the cliffs of Compton Bay and contains 149 bones. Scientists say that this is the "most complete" fossil found in the UK in the last 100 years, writes DailyMail.

The dinosaur found belongs to a group of herbivorous animals known as iguanodonts - large, bulky creatures often referred to by paleontologists as the "cows of the Cretaceous period."

' This animal would have weighed about a ton, about the weight of a large male American bison. Evidence from fossilized footprints found nearby shows that it was probably a herding animal. 'Perhaps large herds of these heavy dinosaurs could have roamed around if they were spooked by predators on floodplains more than 120 million years ago,' suggested Jeremy Lockwood, a PhD student at the University of Portsmouth.

Researchers analyzed every part of the fossil, including the skull, teeth, spine and leg bones, as well as a pubic thigh bone "about the size of a dinner plate."

Jeremy Lockwood said it was unclear why the hip bone found at the base of the abdomen was so large. "It was probably for muscle attachment, which might mean that the mode of locomotion was slightly different. Or to more efficiently support the contents of the stomach or even to influence the way the animal breathed," the scientist expressed different theories.

When Comptonatus was first discovered, the specimen was thought to be a different type of dinosaur called Mantellisaurus, a three-toed herbivore that lived in Britain more than 120 million years ago.

But the scientists concluded that Comptonatus differs from Mantellisaurus in "unique features of its skull, teeth and other body parts." "Its lower jaw has a straight lower edge, whereas most iguanodonts have a jaw that is bent downward," Lockwood emphasized.

Dr. Suzanne Maidment, senior scientist and paleontologist at the Natural History Museum, said the work could help researchers understand how ecosystems renewed themselves after extinction at the end of the Jurassic period, 200-149 million years ago. "Comptonatus is a fantastic dinosaur specimen - one of the most complete found in the UK in a century," she added.

The dinosaur remains were discovered back in 2013 by fossil hunter Nick Chase, who died of cancer shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic. The new dinosaur species was named Comptonatus chasei in honor of the late discoverer and the place where it was found. Experts called the discovery "remarkable".

Because the dinosaur fossil was almost complete, it took Mr. Lockwood and his colleagues several years before the specimen could be prepared for analysis.

Interestingly, eight extinct species from the Isle of Wight have been named in the last five years.

Jeremy Lockwood emphasized that the latest "beautiful find" shows that the Isle of Wight and surrounding areas may have once had "one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world."

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