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In the former 1950s , a mysterious fossil thought to belong to a dinosaur sat on show in the village hall in Fukushima , Japan . But a new analysis of the ancient bone reveals that it belong to an altogether dissimilar animal : a weird , hippo - like creature that lived nearly 16 million years ago .
Much like today’shippopotamus , the tool — a member of the now - extinct genusPaleoparadoxia(Greek for " ancient paradox " ) — was a pee - loving beast that gulped down aquatic plant for dinner , the researchers said .
This is probably whatPaleoparadoxialooked like during its lifetime, about 15.9 million years ago.
The new analysis show that much can be find out by studying long - bury museum fossils , said the study researchers , who detailed the unexpected coney fix they went down while look into the bone ’s past . [ Image Gallery : 25 Amazing Ancient savage ]
" This study demonstrates that if enough information is provided in the first home — a trail of boodle crumbs , if you will — closed book fossils and other museum objects can be tracked down , " say Robert Boessenecker , a postdoctoral research worker in the Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences at the College of Charleston , in South Carolina , who was not involved with the study .
The so - called tec work began in 2017 , when study co - research worker Yuri Kimura , a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo , find an quondam wooden box at the University of Tsukuba . The box contained the correct femur ( pegleg bone)of a desmostylia , an extinct order of aquatic mammalian .
The box where researchers found the mysteriousPaleoparadoxiafossil.
A slip of paper with the box note that the uncatalogued os was discover by Tadayasu Azuma in Tsuchiyu Onsen townsfolk , in Fukushima City , in 1955 . Kimura wanted to see if she could find more fogy at that location , so she and her colleagues go there to judge to nail the femoris ’s origins .
After interviewing several locals and sift through file away documents and photos from the fifties , the researchers learned that the fogey and several other ancient bones were discovered in the early 1950s during the construction of a decameter , maybe the Higashi Karasugawa Riverfirst dekametre .
An audience with Azuma ’s oldest Word offered a slightly dissimilar story . According to the son , he found the fossil while cultivate on the third dam with his father . Because of these conflicting accounts , it ’s indecipherable which year and what dam the fossil is from , the researchers say . However , the Logos also knew that the fossil was n’t a dinosaur bone , and that it belong to a desmostylus , so it ’s potential that the son had intercommunicate with a scientist about the bone , but that the scientist did not officially describe it , the researchers say .
A new analysis shows that the long-forgotten fossil was the femur (leg bone) ofPaleoparadoxia, an ancient hippo-like creature.
Despite this , before long after the fossil ’s discovery , hoi polloi in the Greenwich Village start calling it adinosaur bone . The femur was so far-famed that it was put on display at the settlement Marguerite Radclyffe Hall . Luckily , the fogy was remove short before a devastating flak destroyed most of the metropolis , including the village manse , on Feb. 22 , 1954 , as the investigator see .
Zircon dating
To notice the dodo ’s age , the investigator used zircon dating . Zircon is a mineral that contains the radioactive element uranium , which decays into the constituent confidential information at a specific rate over clock time , agree to the American Museum of Natural History . This firm conversion charge per unit allow scientist to date rock with zircon crystal by analyzing the ratio of uranium and lead within the specimen .
The zircon - dating unveil that thePaleoparadoxialived about 15.9 million years ago , during the Miocene epoch . That fit in perfectly with that researchers already love aboutPaleoparadoxia — a marine creature that could grow up to 6.5 feet ( 2 metre ) in duration and lived in the Pacific Ocean from about 20 million to 10 million years ago .
Moreover , the dodo also has visible muscleman scars , " which cause the specimen useful for future studies that rely on accurate muscle function for modelling bailiwick of travel of the hind arm , " the researchers write in the sketch .
Kumiko Matsui (right) and Yuri Kimura (left) stand next to aPaleoparadoxiaskeleton on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science, in Tokyo.
" I was very impressed with this study , " Boessenecker told Live Science . " The methods involved include a piece of geochemistry and a heap of serious old - fashioned detective study . "
The study was published online July 25 in thejournal Royal Society Open Science .
Original clause onLive skill .
