Fossils from a new species of a 150 million-year-old dwarf dinosaur have been found in northern Germany, scientists said on Wednesday. Initially they suspected that the remains from more than 11 sauropods were from young dinosaurs. But an analysis of their bones showed they were small adults that probably lived on an island during the late Jurassic period.“It is the first case of island dwarfing proven for sauropod dinosaurs,” said Professor Martin Sander of the University of Bonn in Germany.Sauropods were the largest animals that lived on Earth. With their long necks, massive tails, small heads and stout legs they weighed on average about 20 tonnes and measured 20 metres (yards) in length. The biggest grew to 80 tonnes and were as long as 40 metres.By contrast, the new dwarf species, called Europasaurus, was a mere 1 tonne and about 6 metres long -- about the size of a small rhinoceros or a big buffalo.“This one is minute but it is still a big animal,” said Sander, who reported the finding in the journal Nature.The bones were discovered in marine beds in northern Germany. During the Jurassic period, sea levels were much higher than today so much of central Europe was under water.

Dwarfism is a common phenomenon on islands. The scientists believe the animals’ size decreased because they lived in an area where sea levels rose and land masses shrunk.Another possibility is that they moved as large animals to islands and shrank within a few generations because of limited resources.

View: Full Article | Source: Khaleej Times

Just like dwarf mammoths! Grand find indeed!

I believe this is the 2nd or 3rd find in the past few months. I read a article that another type of dinosaur was also found not to long ago. Nice info.

Dwarfing of sauropods on the European Islands were always suspected, but no sure fossil evidence was found until now! There was a sauropod discovered a while back that was suspected to be a dwarf called Magyarosaurus...so technically this is not the first found dwarf sauropod.