The identification of a novel species of diminutive herbivorous dinosaur has been announced, stemming from the excavation of an incomplete juvenile skeleton unearthed within the Republic of Korea.
An artist’s interpretation of a juvenile Doolysaurus huhmini. Image credit: Jun Seong Yi.
The creature designated as Doolysaurus huhmini inhabited the geographical region now known as Korea during the mid-Cretaceous epoch, specifically between 113 and 94 million years ago.
This ancient fauna belonged to the thescelosaurid lineage, a classification of bipedal neornithischian dinosaurs whose fossilized remains are found across East Asia and North America during the Cretaceous period.
“The fossilized skeletal record of dinosaurs in Korea has historically been sparse and fragmented,” stated Dr. Jongyun Jung, a paleontologist affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin and Chonnam National University, alongside his research collaborators.
“Up to the present, only two distinct dinosaur species from this nation have been known from partial postcranial skeletons dating to the Late Cretaceous era: the basal ceratopsian Koreaceratops hwaseongensis and the early-diverging neornithischian Koreanosaurus boseongensis, both originating from the Seonso Conglomerate.”
The fossilized remnants of Doolysaurus huhmini were exhumed in 2023 from geological strata of mid-Cretaceous age within the Ilseongsan Formation, situated on Aphae Island along the southwestern coastline of the Korean Peninsula.
The preserved specimen encompasses cranial bones, vertebral elements, hind limbs, and a significant quantity of gastroliths—mineralized stones ingested to facilitate digestive processes.
The application of advanced X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) technology enabled the research team to generate detailed reconstructions of the dinosaur’s internal anatomical structures, which would otherwise remain concealed within the surrounding rock matrix.
It is theorized that this dinosaur may have possessed a downy covering and was comparable in size to a turkey; however, an adult specimen of Doolysaurus huhmini could have attained double that stature.
Histological examination of the fossil suggests that the individual unearthed was exceptionally young, likely only two years of age.
“I envision it would have been quite endearing. It might have resembled a small lamb,” commented Professor Julia Clarke, a paleontologist at the University of Texas at Austin.
Doolysaurus huhmini represents the inaugural discovery of a new dinosaur species in Korea in fifteen years and marks the first Korean dinosaur fossil to include portions of its skull.
“Upon our initial discovery of the specimen, we observed some preserved leg bones and a number of vertebrae,” recalled Jung.
“We had not anticipated finding cranial elements, nor such a substantial collection of additional bones. There was considerable exhilaration upon revealing what lay concealed within the matrix.”
The presence of a concentrated grouping of gastroliths, coupled with their dimensions and calculated mass, indicates that Doolysaurus huhmini might have subsisted on a more omnivorous diet than previously inferred for closely related dinosaur taxa.
“The observed morphology of gastroliths in Doolysaurus huhmini and other early-diverging neornithischians could signify a generalized or omnivorous dietary strategy for this clade,” the scientific authors posited.
“Nevertheless, extant avian species exhibit considerable variability in stomach architecture and gastrolith utilization across their respective lineages, suggesting that prudence is warranted when employing such data for the inference of non-avian dinosaur diets.”
This remarkable find underscores the potential for further skeletal discoveries in Korea, particularly at paleontological sites like Aphaedo, where geological conditions conducive to preservation differ from those that yielded the nation’s abundant trace fossil record.
“The existence of Doolysaurus huhmini aligns with the notion of a richer dinosaurian diversity in Cretaceous Korea than is currently evidenced by its extensive trace fossil record,” the researchers concluded.
Their comprehensive publication was disseminated online today within the academic journal Fossil Record.
_____
J. Jung et al. 2026. A new dinosaur species from Korea and its implications for early-diverging neornithischian diversity. Fossil Record 29 (1): 87-113; doi: 10.3897/fr.29.178152
