Fossils of new specie of plant-eating dinosaur, aged 150 million years, were found in Phu Noi area of Kalasin’s Kham Moung district for the first time in the world, Mineral Resources Department director-general said yesterday.
At the Science Week launch at Phu Khum Khao’s Sirindhorn Museum yesterday, Porntip Pancharoen said that over 400 fossil pieces from three early Jurassic dinosaurs were retrieved in the past seven months from the Phu Noi excavation site. Unable to compare the 50cm-long jawbone and 3-4 teeth to any known species, Thai researchers confided that this was new specie and planned to promote and build a building over the site to prevent people from stealing fossils, she said. They also excavated from the same rock layer some 30 crocodile and tortoise fossil pieces, which were under testing if they were also of new specie.