Britain’s earliest dinosaur excavated

From British daily The Morning Star:

Oldest dinosaur comes up for air

Tuesday 03 November 2009

Scientists have launched an excavation project to dig up Britain’s oldest dinosaur after it spent more than 210 million years entombed in rock.

The condontosaurus antiquus

No, it is Thecodontosaurus antiquus

is the oldest known dinosaur in Britain and one of the oldest in the world.

A rock specimen discovered at Tytherington Quarry in South Gloucestershire in the 1970s contains the fossilised remains of the so-called Bristol Dinosaur.

Scientists at the University of Bristol were finally able to begin the excavation project after securing a grant of £295,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Bristol Dinosaur project will last three years and will see a complete skeletal reconstruction of the dinosaur attempted for the first time.

During the Triassic period, the kangaroo-sized, plant-eating species lived in herds grazing on the lush islands around what is now Bristol.

The outlines of these islands can still be seen today in the shape of the land – Bristol’s Downs were one such island.

The Highlands Prehistoric Museum, with its impressive T. rex skeleton and other dinosaur fossils, may soon be leaving Cookeville, Tennessee, reports the Herald-Citizen. While this could be bad news for locals, another city may house the museum in future, as owner Jerry Jacene is currently considering an offer from a different Tennessee city as well as two offers from out of state: here.