The Yomiuri Shimbun
FUKUI--A fossil believed to be the femur of a giant plant-eating sauropod dinosaur, has been discovered in a stratum from the early Cretaceous period (about 120 million years ago) in Katsuyama, Fukui Prefecture, a museum announced Monday.
This is the second time a thighbone fossil of the sauropod dinosaur has been found in Japan, following one discovered in 1996 in Toba, Mie Prefecture.
The bone is 85 centimeters long and is believed to have been part of the dinosaur's right hind leg. The knee end of the bone is still intact, but the hip end has been chipped away.
Because thigh joints can be characterized by species, the species the thigh bone is from can be identified, a Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum spokesman said.
No species of the sauropod dinosaur has been identified so far in Japan, according to the museum.
The bone was found in the same sandstone bed and about two meters south from where a foreleg or antebrachial region fossil was discovered in August.
Three teeth, measuring three centimeters long and one centimeter wide, also were found around the site, as well as part of a left-side rib bone, which measures 20 centimeters long and 10 centimeters wide.
Because these fossilized bones, including the foreleg bone found in August, were discovered in the same stratum within a 2.5-meter radius, they very likely belonged to one dinosaur, the museum spokesman said.