In the news: Dinosaur skull from Mifune believed one of oldest in Japan
KYODO, Oct 14, 2007 via Japan Times
KUMAMOTO – A dinosaur skull unearthed on a mountain in the town of Mifune, Kumamoto Prefecture, dates back about 85 million years ago, which means it is likely one of the oldest of its kind in Japan, a local museum said Saturday. The Mifune Dinosaur Museum said the skull belonged to a herbivore called a hadrosaurid that was thriving in the early phase of the Late Cretaceous Period. Hadrosaurids stood about 7 to 8 meters tall and had heads with wide, flat bills that resemble that of the modern-day platypus. They are also called “duck-billed dinosaurs.” Hadrosaurid fossils have mainly been found in North America and Asia, where the dinosaurs were believed to have been alive in the latter phase of the Late Cretaceous Period, which dates back to between about 65 million and 83 million years ago. This is the first time a hadrosaurid skull has been found in Japan, though other parts of hadrosaurids have been found in Hokkaido, Fukushima and Hyogo. This makes it a missing link of sorts, said Naoki Ikegami, 39, a curator with the museum. “The fossil will give clues to clarifying hadrosaurids’ evolution process,” Ikegami said. The skull was found in a stream in February 2004 by a fossil-hunter. It was identified as that of a hadrosaurid after undergoing cleaning to remove petrified material around it. The town of Mifune has yielded numerous dinosaur fossils over the years, including those of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which was one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs.
Read also about the First Discovery of a Pterosaur from the Cretaceous Mifune Group by OTAZAKI & KITAMURA, Bull. Kitakyushu Mus. Nat. Hist., 15: 133-136, pi. 12. March 28, 1996; An unusual theropod tooth from the Mifune Group(monograph on the find of a tooth that may be the first record of the Carcharodontosauridae from Asia and which is a significant addition to the dinosaur fauna of Japan); A tooth of Fukuiraptor aff. F. kitadaniensis from the Lower Cretaceous Sebayashi Formation, Sanchu Cretaceous, Japan(fulltext)…this last paper shows you a map of the formations and areas where Fukuiraptor dinosaur fossils are located.
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Visit the Mifune Museum and try their hands-on experiential learning projects, eg. making replicas of fossils, costs only 100 yen for kids and 200 yen for adults, click here
Mifune Museum Website / 御船町恐竜博物館: www.mifunemuseum.jp (unfortunately in Japanese only); Facebook page
Telephone: 096-282-4051 Fax: 096-282-4157 E-mail: info@mifunemuseum.jp
Mifune Dinosaur Museum is located in Kumamoto, Japan. In 1979 one first grade boy was looking for the fossils of clams for his summer project at Mifune-machi (Mifune town) in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. Then accidentally he found something different in the rock. That was the first carnivorous dinosaur ever found in Japan. It was tooth of Megalosauridae, named “Mifune ryu” (means Mifune dragon). Find out more at Jack Lizard’s Mifune Museum page.
Other info pages:
Mifune Dinosaur Museum at the Wind Beneath My Wings Japanese blog
EDUCATION IN JAPAN COMMUNITY Blog 