80-million-year-old fossil found in Japan

MIFUNE, Japan, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- The skull of a platypus-like dinosaur estimated to be more than 80 million years old has been discovered on a Japanese mountaintop near the town of Mifune.

The local museum said Saturday the specimen comes from the species hadrosaurid, which thrived in the Late Cretaceous Period, between 65 million and 83 million years ago, the Kyodo News Service reported Sunday.

Hadrosaurids were about 7 meters tall and had wide, flat bills, the news service said. Most hadrosaurid fossils have been found in North America and Asia.

The unearthing of the fossil, the first found in Japan, provides clues to the evolution of the dinosaurs, a museum official said.