British dinosaur hunters 'unearth 48 new prehistoric species'

10 February 2009
The Press Trust of India Limited

London, Feb 10 (PTI) Palaeontologists claim to have unearthed 48 new prehistoric species including dinosaurs, from cliffs of the Isle of Wight dubbed as Britain's Jurassic Park.

A team at the Portsmouth University, led by Dr Steve Sweetman, actually made the discovery during their painstaking search of what has been nicknamed the "Dinosaur Island" over a period of four years.

Their haul includes eight dinosaurs, six mammals and 15 different types of lizard dating back to 130 million years, all taken from cliffs of Isle of Wight, 'The Daily Telegraph' newspaper reported.

Highlights include the remains of a creature similar to a giant velociraptor - similar in size to those portrayed in the 'Jurassic Park' film - and pterosaurs and long-necked Sauropods like the massive Brachiosaurus, seen in the movie.

"It has taken me just four years of hard graft to make my discoveries. In the very first sample I found a tiny jaw of an extinct newt-sized, salamander-like amphibian and then new species just kept coming. "Although we knew a lot about the larger species that existed on the island during the early Cretaceous, no-one had ever filled in the gaps.

"With these discoveries I can paint a really detailed picture of the creatures that scurried at the feet and in the shadows of the dinosaurs," the leading British daily quoted Dr Sweetman as saying.

In fact the Jurasic Island is thought to be one of the top five in the world for concentrations of dinosaurs remains. Last year, a review of the species discovered on these islands identified 108 species since first fossil was found in 1824.