A retired man, who has dedicated the past 30 years uncovering fossils in the Bexhill region of East Sussex, has discovered dinosaur teeth from a formidable predator, the tyrannosaur.
It’s an exciting and ground-breaking discovery: tyrannosaurs – powerful hunters with a large heads, and jaws equipped with serrated teeth for eating flesh – are very rare in the Cretaceous sediments of southern England.
The tyrannosaurs discovered would have been approximately one-third the size of Tyrannosaurus rex. They hunted small dinosaurs and reptiles in their floodplain habitat.
Teeth from spinosaurs – semi-aquatic dinosaurs with large sail-like vertebrae – and members of the Velociraptor family – agile, sickle-clawed dinosaurs – have also been identified.
A community of predators
A team of researchers led by the University of Southampton used several techniques to analyse the fossils.
They collaborated with colleagues at London’s Natural History Museum, the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, and the Museo Miguel Lillo De Ciencias Naturales in Argentina.
“Dinosaur teeth are tough fossils and are usually preserved more frequently than bone. For that reason, they’re often crucial when we want to reconstruct the diversity of an ecosystem”, says Dr Chris Barker, visiting researcher at the University of Southampton and lead author of the research.
“Rigorous methods exist that can help identify teeth with high accuracy. Our results suggest the presence of spinosaurs, mid-sized tyrannosaurs and tiny dromaeosaurs – Velociraptor-like theropods – in these deposits”.
Assigning isolated teeth to theropods – types of carnivorous dinosaurs that walked on their back legs and had short front legs – is challenging. This is why the team employed various methods to help refine findings, leading to more confident classifications.
“It’s highly likely that reassessment of theropod teeth in museum stores elsewhere will bring up additional discoveries,” says Lucy Handford, co-author of the paper.
A global first
Dr Darren Naish, a co-author of the study, added: “These East Sussex dinosaurs are older than those from the better-known Cretaceous sediments of the Isle of Wight. They are mysterious and poorly known by comparison. We’ve hoped for decades to find out which theropod groups lived here, so the conclusions of our new study are really exciting.”
Citizen science
The discovery wouldn't have happened without the tireless collecting of retired quarryman Dave Brockhurst.
Dave has uncovered thousands of specimens, ranging from partial dinosaur skeletons to tiny shark teeth. He has donated around 5000 of his discoveries to Bexhill Museum. Theropods are exceptionally rare at the site, and Dave has only found ten or so specimens there so far.
Several of the specimens are on display at Bexhill Museum in East Sussex. University of Southampton’s Institute for Life Sciences funded the research.
More about prehistoric Britain
- Largest-ever marine reptile found in Somerset
- A quick guide to common UK fossils
- New species of Jurassic pterosaur unearthed on Scotland’s Isle of Skye
Main image: Anthony Hutchings