Tyrannosaur teeth dating back 130 million years discovered in East Sussex
It's all thanks to the work of a fossil-collecting quarryman
Several groups of meat-eating dinosaur stalked the coast of East Sussex 135 million years ago, according to new research.
The study from experts at the University of Southampton, published today in Papers in Palaeontology , has discovered a whole community of predators belonging to different dinosaur groups in the Bexhill area - including tyrannosaurs, spinosaurs and members of the Velociraptor family.
The new Bexhill-on-Sea dinosaurs are represented by teeth alone.
It’s the first time tyrannosaurs have been identified in sediments of this age and region.
Dr Chris Barker, visiting researcher at the University of Southampton and lead author of the research, said:
“Meat-eating dinosaurs – properly called theropods – are rare in the Cretaceous sediments of southern England.
"Usually, Isle of Wight dinosaurs attract most of our attention. Much less is known about the older Cretaceous specimens recovered from sites on the mainland.”
The tireless collecting of retired quarryman Dave Brockhurst, who has spent the last 30 years uncovering fossils from Ashdown Brickworks, was key to the discovery.
Dave has uncovered thousands of specimens, ranging from partial dinosaur skeletons to tiny shark teeth. Around 5000 of his discoveries have already been donated to Bexhill Museum.
Theropods are exceptionally rare at the site, and Dave has only found ten or so specimens there so far.
"As a child I was fascinated by dinosaurs and never thought how close they could be.
Many years later I started work at Ashdown and began looking for fossils.
"I’m happy with tiny fish scales or huge thigh bones, although the preservation of the dinosaur teeth really stands out for me."
Theropod teeth are complex, and vary in size, shape, and in the anatomy of their serrated edges.
The University of Southampton team used several techniques to analyse the fossils, including phylogenetic, discriminant and machine learning methods, teaming up with colleagues at London’s Natural History Museum, the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, and the Museo Miguel Lillo De Ciencias Naturales in Argentina.
Dr Barker added:
“Dinosaur teeth are tough fossils and are usually preserved more frequently than bone. For that reason, they’re often crucial when we want to reconstruct the diversity of an ecosystem.
“Rigorous methods exist that can help identify teeth with high accuracy. Our results suggest the presence of spinosaurs, mid-sized tyrannosaurs and tiny dromaeosaurs – Velociraptor-like theropods – in these deposits”.
The discovery of tyrannosaurs is particularly notable, since the group hasn’t previously been identified in sediments of this age and region. These tyrannosaurs would have been around a third of the size of their famous cousin Tyrannosaurus rex, and likely hunted small dinosaurs and other reptiles in their floodplain habitat.
Dr Darren Naish, a co-author of the study, added:
"Southern England has an exceptionally good record of Cretaceous dinosaurs, and various sediment layers here are globally unique in terms of geological age and the fossils they contain.
"These East Sussex dinosaurs are older than those from the better-known Cretaceous sediments of the Isle of Wight, and are mysterious and poorly known by comparison.
"We’ve hoped for decades to find out which theropod groups lived here, so the conclusions of our new study are really exciting."
Several of the specimens are on display at Bexhill Museum.