A single tooth belonging to a spinosaurid dinosaur has been confirmed as the first known dinosaur fossil ever found in Malaysia according to a Feb. 24, 2014, article at the ResearchSEA website. The dinosaur was discovered in the Pahang region of Malaysia by Dr. Masatoshi Sone of the University of Malaya, Professor Ren Hirayama from Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues from Kumamoto University in Japan.
The tooth designated as UM10575 was dated between 75 million years of age and 145 million years of age. The tooth is 10 millimeters wide and 23 millimeters long and contains multiple serrations. The serrations indicate the tooth belonged to a carnivorous dinosaur that probably ate fish. The tooth has all the characteristic markings of a spinosaurid sauropod.
Much of Malaysia was covered by water during the time the dinosaur lived so an assumption that the animal ate fish as a majority of its diet is supported by geological history.
The researchers will not reveal the exact location of the find in fear that people may steal fossils from the area like fossil thefts that have occurred recently in the United States, China, and Mongolia.
The researchers expect to discover many more Malaysian dinosaurs in the region where the first evidence of dinosaurs in Malaysia was discovered due to the nature of the rock and the age of the sedimentary strata.