Largest-ever dinosaur tooth marks found in South Korea

Aug 1, 2011, 10:42 GMT

Seoul - South Korean palaeontologists have uncovered the largest fossilized tooth marks left by a dinosaur ever found. The carnivore's tooth marks were found in the tail of its prey, a large herbivorous dinosaur.

Fossil expert Professor Paik In-Sung published the results of his findings in the online edition of the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

Paik and his team from the Environmental Sciences Department of Pukyong National University in Pusan found the tooth marks in the tailbone of a mature Pukyongosaurus, a four-legged herbivore that lived on the Korean peninsula during the early Cretaceous Period some 120 million years ago.

The largest mark was a full 17 centimetres long, 2 centimetres wide and 1.5 centimetres deep.

'It is very difficult to identify the species on the basis of the tooth marks,' Paik said. However, the marks do provide information on the feeding habits of carnivorous dinosaurs, according to the researchers.

The discovery of teeth marks of varying size on the same piece of bone indicated that different carnivores had fed on the same large prey, they said. This was comparable with modern carnivores.

The fossil tail vertebrae were found at the end of December in Hadong in the south-east of the Korean peninsula. They were the first fossilized dinosaur tooth marks to be found in South Korea, according to Paik.