Fossils of a small hypsilophodontid dinosaur unearthed on the Isle of Wight in southern England have been recognized as belonging to a new genus and species.
Life reconstruction of Vectidromeus insularis. Image credit: Emily Willoughby.
Vectidromeus insularis roamed Earth during the Early Cretaceous epoch, about 125 million years ago.
This dinosaur was slightly bigger than a chicken and was a type of hypsilophodontid (Hypsilophodontidae), a group of nimble, bipedal herbivores that lived alongside early tyrannosaurs, spinosaurs, and Iguanodon.
“Vectidromeus insularis is a close relative of Hypsilophodon foxii, a dinosaur originally described in the Victorian era, and one of the first dinosaurs to be described from relatively complete remains,” said University of Bath paleontologist Nicholas Longrich and colleagues.
“Small and with gracile, with bird-like hindlimbs, hypsilophodonts were used by famous scientist Thomas Henry Huxley as evidence that birds were related to dinosaurs.”
“Hypsilophodon foxii is also found on the Isle of Wight, but was found higher up in the rocks, perhaps two or three million years younger than Vectidromeus insularis.”
“Vectidromeus insularis differs in details of the hip bones, suggesting it’s a closely related but distinct species.”
A partial skeleton of a juvenile Vectidromeus insularis was found in the lower part of the Wessex Formation at Sudmoor Point on the Isle of Wight, a diamond-shaped isle with an east-west long axis of approximately 37 km and a north-south axis of 21 km.
“This exciting new find is the latest in a line of new discoveries from the Isle of Wight,” said Dinosaur Isle Museum paleontologist Martin Munt.
The new species is the second member of the Hypsilophodontidae family to be found on the island, suggesting that Europe had its own family of small herbivorous dinosaurs, distinct from those found in Asia and North America.
“We had a curious situation where one of the first dinosaur families to be recognised had just one species. And now, we have two,” Dr. Longrich said.
“What’s intriguing is that they’re not particularly closely related to anything found in North America, Asia, or the southern hemisphere.”
“We’re still piecing together how all these dinosaurs are related, and how dinosaurs moved between continents.”
“After Pangea broke up, there was a lot of isolation, leading to different kinds of dinosaurs evolving on each continent.”
“It is utterly bizarre that so many new dinosaurs are being discovered on the Isle of Wight,” said University of Portsmouth’s Professor Dave Martill.
“Vectidromeus insularis is the seventh new species of dinosaur to be discovered in the last four years. This is all down to the amateur collectors.”
The discovery of Vectidromeus insularis is described in a paper in the journal Cretaceous Research.
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Nicholas R. Longrich et al. Vectidromeus insularis, a new hypsilophodontid dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight, England. Cretaceous Research, published online September 13, 2023; doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105707
