Dinosaur Found at Surrey Brickworks in 2001 Is a New Genus
Natural History Museum researchers have named Paludohadros proudlovii, an iguanodontian that lived in the wetlands of southern England about 125 million years ago.
A dinosaur dug up at a Surrey brick and roof tile works in 2001 has now been named as a new genus and species. Paludohadros proudlovii came from the Ewhurst Works and was later donated to the Natural History Museum. The naming comes more than 25 years after the discovery.
The animal was an iguanodontian, a group known for the thumb spikes on its hands. It was a four-legged herbivore that lived around 125 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous. Southern England was then covered in muddy wetlands, and the genus name draws on that: "palus" is Latin for "swamp".
Who it is named for
The species name honours Will Proudlove, a former employee of the Ewhurst Works who rose through the ranks to become its manager. He died at 35, shortly before the dinosaur was excavated, and left behind his wife Rachael and their young children Ellie and Matt.
Rachael Proudlove said Will had always been interested in dinosaur fossils and was fascinated by whatever turned up when a layer of clay was removed from the quarry. The family was invited to watch the excavation in 2001. "We're absolutely overjoyed and honored that Will's name and legacy will live on in this dinosaur," she said.
Size and age
Paludohadros was about 5 metres (16 feet) long and weighed roughly 1.5 to 2 tonnes, similar to a rhino. Its bones do not appear to have been fully developed, so this individual was probably a juvenile that could have grown to twice that size as an adult.
The finding follows a 2023 redescription of Mantellisaurus by museum scientists, which let researchers pick out key differences between southern English iguanodontians. Until then, fossils from the region were usually assigned to either Iguanodon or its smaller relative Mantellisaurus. Brighstoneus, Comptonatus and the sail-backed Istiorachis have since been named, and Paludohadros is the latest.
Senior author Susannah Maidment of the Natural History Museum and the University of Birmingham pointed out where the fossil lay: just 100 metres from the remains of Baryonyx, a two-legged carnivore found at the same works in 1983. Baryonyx is best known for eating fish, but its last meal also included a baby iguanodontian. Maidment said it cannot be told which species that was, so Baryonyx could have scavenged young Paludohadros or hunted them.
The work was led by Ricardo Sacamoto, a PhD student at the museum and the University of São Paulo. Several other Paludohadros specimens have been identified among fossils first collected in the 1950s. The reanalysis is set to continue in the coming years, with the potential for more species to be found.
The paper appears in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.