Despite its name, Greenland is not very green. It is a cold place, located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and is the world’s largest island. It is officially part of Denmark.

Now, for the first time ever, scientists have discovered a dinosaur species that lived only in Greenland.

This dinosaur was a long-necked plant-eating animal that lived around 214 million years ago. Scientists have named it Issi saaneq. This means “cold bone” in Greenland’s Indigenous (local) Kalaallisut language.

The new dinosaur is related to the sauropod dinosaurs. But unlike many other sauropods, it was medium-sized, not very large.

What were sauropods?

Sauropods were a type of dinosaur that had long necks and tails, four legs, and ate plants. They also belonged to a group of huge dinosaurs called titanosaurians.

The discovery

Scientists first discovered fossils of the ‘cold bone’ dinosaur in 1994. However, at that time, scientists did not think that it was a new species. They thought the fossil belonged to a Plateosaurus. This was another long-necked dinosaur that lived in parts of Europe during the Triassic Period (252 to 201 million years ago).

However, an international team of researchers recently used technology to study the skull. This made them realise that it was a completely new dinosaur.

‘Cold bone’ lived during an important time in Earth’s history. At that time, the climate on Earth was changing. This helped plant-eating dinosaurs like it to reach Europe and even travel beyond that (like Greenland).

Here we go, I'm pleased to present the new dinosaur from Greenland, Issi saaneq!! The results from my Master in Paleontology thesis at @FCTNOVA were just published! pic.twitter.com/TvArR9Ws4y

— Victor Beccari (@beccarivictor) November 3, 2021

 

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