New species of dinosaur discovered on the Isle of Wight

Named Vectidromeus insularis, the small, plant-eating dinosaur measures about the size of a chicken.

Scientists say it was a juvenile and may have grown much larger.

The discovery was made as part of a collaboration led by the University of Bath, along with the University of Portsmouth, Sandown's Dinosaur Isle, and local fossil collectors, Mick Green, Mark Penn, and Shaun Smith.

It is the second member of the hypsilophodont family to be found here, which suggests Europe had its own family of small herbivorous dinosaurs, distinct from those found in Asia and North America.

Co-author on the study, Professor Dave Martill, from the University of Portsmouth, said: “It is utterly bizarre that so many new dinosaurs are being discovered on the Isle of Wight.

“Vectidromeus is the seventh new species of dinosaur to be discovered in the last four years. This is all down to the amateur collectors.”

Vectidromeus, right view. (Image: Contributed)

Vectidromeus silhouette by Nick Longrich. (Image: Nick Longrich)
The Cretaceous strata on the Isle of Wight is hundreds of metres thick and may span several million years.

Scientific consensus is still not entirely clear how old they are - so the fossils may be sampling a whole series of evolving ecosystems, each with a different set of species.

Dr Nicholas Longrich, from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, who led the study, said: “Paleontologists have been working on the Isle of Wight for more than a century, and these fossils have played an important role in the history of vertebrate paleontology, but we’re still making new discoveries about the dinosaur fauna as the sea erodes new fossils out of the cliffs."

Hypsilophodonts were a group of nimble, bipedal herbivores that lived around 125 million years ago.

While Vectidromeus is a close relative of Hypsilophodon foxii, a dinosaur originally described in the Victorian era.

Hypsilophodon is also found on the Isle of Wight, but was found higher up in the rocks, perhaps two or three million years younger than Vectidromeus.

Over the years, dozens of small plant-eating dinosaurs have been put into the hypsilophodont family, but revisions to the dinosaur family tree have resulted in reclassifying them to other branches of the tree, leaving Hypsilophodon as the only species left in the family.

Dr Longrich said: “We had a curious situation where one of the first dinosaur families to be recognised had just one species. And now, we have two.

“We’re still piecing together how all these dinosaurs are related, and how dinosaurs moved between continents."

Co-author, and curator of Dinosaur Isle Museum Dr Martin Munt, said: “This exciting new find is the latest in a line of new discoveries from the Isle of Wight."