Malaysia’s first dinosaur fossil found in Pahang

Scientists from two universities have discovered the fossil of a dinosaur that feeds on fish in the interior of Pahang, the first fossil to be found in Malaysia.

The remains of the dinosaur – from Spinosauridae family – are believed to be between 65 million and 145.5 million years old, from the late Mesozoic era or the "age of the reptiles".

The dinosaur’s remains were identified by a team led by Associate Professor Dr Masatoshi Sone of Universiti Malaya's geology department in collaboration with reptile palaeontology specialist Professor Ren Hirayama from Tokyo’s Waseda University.

"We have successfully confirmed the presence of dinosaur remains, a fossilised tooth, in Pahang," Sone was quoted as saying by Astro Awani.

The fossil remains were discovered in August last year during field expeditions and a search for dinosaur deposits in Malaysia, which began in September 2012.

Among the remains found was a fossil tooth named Sample UM10575 which is about 23mm long and 10mm wide.

Sone said that the tooth was the best preserved fossil among other bone fragments also uncovered at the excavation site, which was then identified by Hirayama as belonging to a spinosaurid dinosaur.

This group were known as carnivorous, fish-eating dinosaurs and were believed to be "semi-aquatic", Sone added.

“It means it lived half in the river or lake and half on land. Something like the hippopotamus," he said.

However, the research team said that the sample was too small for them to make more interpretations such as the sex of the dinosaur.

"We don't know how it looked like exactly. We know it walked on two legs typically, maybe like the T-Rex, and some were known to have large, nail-like claws," Sone was quoted as saying.

The spinosaurid is described as a large predator with elongated, crocodile-like skulls and conical teeth with no or only very tiny serrations. – February 19, 2014.