LONDON: The fossil remains of a plant-eating dinosaur estimated to have roamed the earth some 125 million years ago have been discovered on England’s Isle of Wight, with scientists believing it to be the most complete new specimen found in Britain in a century.
Weighing roughly the same as a large male American bison at about 900 kilogrammes (1990 lbs), the herbivorous species was likely a herding animal, Jeremy Lockwood, a PhD student at the University of Portsmouth who helped with the excavation, said in a statement.
The dinosaur, made up of 149 bones, was found in the cliffs of Compton Bay on the Isle of Wight, off the southern coast of England, in 2013 by late fossil collector Nick Chase.
It was named “Comptonatus chasei” as a tribute to Chase.
“Nick had a phenomenal nose for finding dinosaur bones ... This really is a remarkable find,” Lockwood said.
“It helps us understand more about the different types of dinosaurs that lived in England in the Early Cretaceous,” said Lockwood, also the lead author of a new paper describing the species published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.
The remains of a meat-eating dinosaur belonging to an ancient predator bigger than anything known from the whole of Europe was discovered on the island in 2022. It was also from the Cretaceous Period.
The most complete UK dinosaur in a century found on the Isle of Wight
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The most complete UK dinosaur in a century found on the Isle of Wight
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
