A joint Korea-U.S. research team recently discovered a new baby dinosaur fossil in Korea and named the dinosaur Doolysaurus. The fossil belonged to a young dinosaur, like the character in the comic "Baby Dinosaur Dooly."
The Korea Dinosaur Research Center at Chonnam National University and the University of Texas at Austin reported the findings on the 19th in the international journal Fossil Record.
The newly discovered dinosaur's scientific name is Doolysaurus huhmini. The species name "huhmini" is derived from the name of paleontologist Heo Min, a professor at Chonnam National University who has contributed to dinosaur research in Korea for the past 30 years. Heo participated in establishing the Korea Dinosaur Research Center and has worked to preserve domestic dinosaur fossil sites.
The Doolysaurus fossil was found on Aphae Island in Sinan County, South Jeolla Province, in 2023. It is the first new dinosaur species confirmed in Korea in 15 years and the first dinosaur fossil from Korea found with part of the skull remaining. Until now, trace fossils such as dinosaur footprints, nests, and eggs have often been discovered in Korea, while body fossils have been relatively rare.
The researchers said that when they first discovered the fossil, they could only identify parts of the leg bones and vertebrae. Later, micro-computed tomography (CT) at the University of Texas revealed skull fragments and several bones that had been almost buried in hard rock. Micro-CT is a technique that looks inside without cutting, like a medical CT.
The team found growth traces in the dinosaur's femur and estimated it was a young individual about 2 years old. Its size was about that of a turkey, but they believed that when fully grown it would have been about twice as large, and they expected that its body was covered with fine, hair-like fibers.
Doolysaurus is analyzed to have lived between about 113 million and 94 million years ago, in the mid-Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era. Taxonomically, it belongs to Thescelosauridae and can be seen as a group of bipedal herbivorous or omnivorous dinosaurs.
Many gastroliths were also found in the fossil. Gastroliths are small stones swallowed by animals such as dinosaurs or birds to help grind and digest food. The gastroliths from this fossil suggest the dinosaur may have eaten not only plants but also insects or small animals.
The researchers said, "The reason dinosaur bone fossils are scarce in Korea may not be because they don't exist, but because they are still hidden in rock," adding, "As in this case, even if only some bones are visible on the surface, precision CT scans may reveal more fossils inside."
The team plans to return to Aphae Island to collect additional fossils. They also plan to reexamine other fossils in Korea using the CT analysis techniques employed this time.
References
Fossil Record (2026), DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.29.178152