The Discovery

More than two decades after its unearthing in 2001 at the Ewhurst Works site in Surrey, a unique prehistoric animal has been officially recognized. The fossil was donated to the Natural History Museum, where detailed study eventually confirmed it belonged to a brand new genus and species: Paludohadros proudlovii.

The species name honours Will Proudlove, a former manager at the site who died at age 35 shortly before the specimen was excavated. His memory lives on through this discovery, celebrated by his wife Rachael and their children, Ellie and Matt.

What Scientists Found

Research led by PhD student Ricardo Sacamoto alongside senior author Professor Susannah Maidment has outlined several key details about the creature:

  • Anatomy and Size: The dinosaur was a four-legged plant-eater belonging to the iguanodontians, a group noted for their iconic thumbspikes. The fossilized individual was about five metres long and weighed between 1.5 and two tonnes—roughly the size of a modern rhino. Unformed bone features indicate it was a juvenile that might have grown twice as large upon reaching adulthood.
  • Ancient Habitat: Living roughly 125 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous Period, it inhabited the muddy wetlands of southern England. This environment gave the genus its name, deriving from "palus," the Latin word for swamp.
  • Ecology: The skeleton was found merely 100 metres from where the carnivore Baryonyx walkeri was discovered in 1983. Because fossil evidence indicates a Baryonyx once ate a baby iguanodontian, it is possible this predator hunted or scavenged young Paludohadros.

Why It Matters

For a long time, iguanodontian fossils uncovered in southern England were assumed to belong to either Iguanodon or Mantellisaurus. A thorough redescription of Mantellisaurus published in 2023 changed this view, allowing researchers to distinguish distinct anatomical variations. This re-examination has sparked a surge of new dinosaur names, including Brighstoneus, Comptonatus, Istiorachis, and now Paludohadros.

The study, published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, has driven researchers to review other museum holdings, revealing that additional Paludohadros bones had actually been gathered as early as the 1950s.

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Source: dinosaur fossil discovery - BingNews · Published October 27, 2026 · Photo by Aditya Vyas on Unsplash