Korean dinosaur photo book hits shelves

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- A book that compiles dinosaur fossils on the Korean
Peninsula was published on Tuesday, a rare photo guide to the reptiles that left
their last footprints on southern coasts 80 million years ago.

The publication by the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, a
state-run preservation agency, follows a series of landmark discoveries in the
country last year, such as a horned dinosaur that is allegedly an unknown species
yet, and a footprint of a baby dinosaur, the smallest of its kind found so far.
Paleontologists say dinosaurs lived in Korea from 120 million to 80 million years
ago, much of the Cretaceous period, the last stage of the Mesozoic era and the
heyday for dinosaurs. Their fossils, relatively well-preserved and discovered in
a richly diverse spectrum across the southern South Korean coasts, are currently
registered on the tentative list of the World Heritage site, en route to gaining
major recognition.
"Many of them were only known in academia, and the major merit of this book is
that it comes with photographs and easy texts so that they can be known to
ordinary people. Our idea was that people can use it as a guide when they go see
the footprints," said Lim Jong-deock, a chief curator at the institute and one of
the six co-authors of the book, "Dinosaur Fossils of Korea."
Lim stressed the book is the first full collection of Korean dinosaur fossils
designated as natural heritage here. Its English edition is expected later this
year.
Dinosaur studies are relatively new in Korea. It began with the discovery of
fossilized dinosaur eggs in 1972 in the southeastern coast of Hadong County,
South Gyeongsang Province. The following year, bones of a herbivorous sauropoda
were discovered in sediment in a nearby village.
Local dinosaur research took full shape when a massive reservoir of fossilized
bones and eggs of ornithopoda, a division of dinosaurs that were herbivorous and
mostly two-legged, were discovered on the southwestern coast in Boseong, South
Jeolla Province, in 2004
Last year, paleontologists discovered the biggest dinosaur footprints yet to be
found in the country -- 35.4 cm long and 17.3 cm wide -- in Gunwi, North
Gyeongsang Province. Also footprints of a baby dinosaur -- 1.27 cm long and 1.06
cm wide, the world's smallest to be reported -- came to sight in Namhae in the
same province, along with a honed dinosaur fossil, likely known yet to the world,
in Goseong.
Most scientists believe dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years ago after
large meteorites hit the earth, causing crustal movements, volcano eruptions and
ultimately changing its ecological environment.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)