Issan fossil find attarcts interest from Japan

Issan fossil find attarcts interest from JapanAn excavation here has discovered allosaurus fossils and those of other dinosaurs.
Published on December 18, 2007
"Allosaurus is the biggest carnivorous dinosaur species to have been found in Thailand," said Dr Pratuang Jintasakul, director of the Nakhon Ratcha-sima Rajabhat University Petrified Wood and Mineral Resources Research Institute and Museum.
Allosaurus is a late-Jurassic carnivorous dinosaur. It is similar to, but somewhat smaller, than the tyrannosaurus. Yet, allosaurus used to stand as tall as 10 metres. "From what we have found, some of its teeth are 10 centimetres long," Pratuang said.
Excavation at Ban Saphan Hin in Nakhon Ratchasima's Muang district uncovered iguanodon, duck-billed dinosaur and pterosaurs fossils in conglomerate layers dating back 100 million years.
Japanese dinosaur expert Dr Yoichi Azuma, deputy director of the Fukui Dinosaur Museum, also attended yesterday's announcement.
Pratuang said his institute had found piles of dinosaur fossils and rocks in the suburbs of Khon Kaen over the past seven years. Then in 2005, he invited Chinese dinosaur expert Professor Dong Zhiming to help classify the fossils.
"In all, there are more than 1,000 dinosaur fossils," he said.
Because the Chinese expert also served as an adviser to the Fukui Dinosaur Museum, Azuma heard about the fossils in Nakhon Ratchasima and made a visit here last year.
The Fukui museum offered scholarships worth around Bt1.8 million each year for palaeontologists to jointly study fossils alongside the institute team between 2007 and 2009.
Pratuang said the university offered financial help, too.
The Nation
NAKHON RATCHASIMA