Second dinosaur fossil found in Malaysia

A Malaysian university Thursday announced the recovery of a dinosaur fossil in the country, media reported.

“The new dinosaur tooth was about 13 mm long and 10.5 mm wide and was found in Pahang,” said Masatoshi Sone, associate professor of the geology department at Universiti Malaya.

This is the second discovery of a dinosaur fossil in a period of nine months. The first fossil was found in February this year.

“The fossil tooth of a herbivorous dinosaur belongs to the Ornithischian order,” the Malaysian Star quoted Sone as saying.

The fossil was discovered in a sedimentary rock formation in Pahang, which dates back to the Cretaceous period.

The specimen was found not far from the location of where the first dinosaur fossil was discovered.

The exact location of the discoveries could not be disclosed, to prevent others from raiding the site.

"The find implies that there was an established vegetated terrestrial ecosystem in Peninsular Malaysia during the Cretaceous period," Sone said at a press conference at Universiti Malaya.

The Cretaceous period is defined as the period between 145 to 75 million years ago, the last period of the Mesozoic era, following the Jurassic and ending with the extinction of the dinosaurs.