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A new species of dinosaur uncovered at a site in southern Missouri may lead to more fossils being discovered in the area.
On Monday, University of Minnesota Paleontologist Peter Makovicky, who aided in leading the dig, said numerous other remains could be found at the site.
"We actually have something that's probably a mass death locality, where we have a herd of dinosaurs dying and being sort of buried together, and individuals of different ages," Makovicky said.
The fossils are from a Parrosaurus missouriensis, a large duck-billed dinosaur. It was discovered 80 years ago at the same site but was not identified as a new species until the latest find last month, according to The Associated Press. A crane lifted a 2,500-pound chunk of remains from the find in the glen of a wooded area. The fossils will continue to be researched at Chicago's Field Museum.
The herbivorous dinosaurs are believed to have grown to about 35 feet in length, experts say. Four remains of the dinosaur have been found in the area, about 110 miles south of St. Louis.
"We can start looking at how these dinosaurs grew, start to understand a little bit about their biology and their possible herd structure. And that's unique for a site east of the Great Plains. Most of what we know about the North American dinosaur comes from out west," Makovicky said.
The Missouri site had its first discovery during the early 1940s, when a family had been digging a well. At the time, experts were unsure of what type of dinosaur it was, storing the bones away.
In the 1980s, a Missouri paleontologist bought the property, then found another dinosaur fossil.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
Meanwhile, Guy Darrough, a fossil enthusiast and curator of the Sainte Genevieve Museum Learning Center in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, got permission to start digging around. About 10 years ago, he found fossils confirmed to be a juvenile dinosaur.
That discovery led Makovicky and his team to the site in 2017. Bones of the latest adult dinosaur were discovered, and experts determined that the Missouri dinosaurs were part of their own species. Makovicky believes they roamed the region 75 million to 90 million years ago.
The latest dig was a slow one, in part because of delays connected to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also because the teams had to work cautiously in the wet clay of the Missouri site — fossils are more typically excavated from rock.
"It's a lot less power tools and a lot more clay sculpting tools you might get an art store," Makovicky said.
Beyond dinosaur bones, the teams have found remains of massive turtles, prehistoric fish, even crocodiles that may have been to up 50 feet (15 meters) long, Darrough and Makovicky said.
