‘Unique’ dinosaur species — a triceratops relative — discovered from fossils in Japan

An international team of researchers recently discovered a tiny new dinosaur species in Japan — and named it after a gnome.

The newfound creature was identified based on 17 fossils unearthed in Tamba-Sasayama, located about 320 miles southwest of Tokyo, according to a study published on Sept. 2 in the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

The species was a ceratopsian, a group of plant-eating dinosaurs distinguished by head frills and large horns, the most well-known of which is the triceratops.

However, its appearance was unique from all of its known relatives, according to a news release from Carleton University in Canada.

“As a primitive ceratopsian, it lacked the large horns and frills seen in later species like the triceratops,” the university said.

A digital recreation of the dinosaur depicts it as standing on two feet and having a short, stubby tail.

An analysis of the fossils revealed that the newfound creature was incredibly small, weighing just 22 pounds and measuring around 2.5 feet.

But, it likely would have grown to be bigger as its bone structure indicated it was young when it died.

It lived sometime during the Cretaceous period, which spanned from 145 millions years ago to 66 million years ago.

Researchers named the species Sasayamagnomus saegusai — which combines several words.

“Sasayama” comes from the Sasayama Basin, which is where the fossils were found. And “gnomus” is Latin for gnome, a creature “which often appears in European folklore as a small humanoid spirit who lives underground and guards treasure hidden in the earth,” according to the study.

Meanwhile, “saegusai” is taken from Dr. Haruo Saegusa, a renowned paleontologist.

The discovery of the species helps to pinpoint the migration timeline of ceratopsians over time, according to the study.

“Sasayamagnomus is closely related to primitive ceratopsians from North America, suggesting that ceratopsians, which originated in Asia, may have immigrated to North America around 110 million years ago during the mid-Cretaceous period,” according to the release.

This movement across continents likely would have been facilitated by the Bering Land Bridge, a strip of land that once connected Asia to North America.

However, the migration also could have happened via the Arctic region, which, as a result of dramatic global warming, was covered in forests.

The study authors were: Tomonori Tanaka, Kentaro Chiba, Tadahiro Ikeda and Michael Ryan.

This story was originally published September 9, 2024 at 10:03 AM with the headline "‘Unique’ dinosaur species — a triceratops relative — discovered from fossils in Japan."