Dinosaur fossils found in Germany belong to small dinosaurs

Dinosaur fossils found in Germany belong to a species (Europasaurus holgeri), of small dinosaurs, say scientists.

Over 1,000 fossils dating about 150 million years have been excavated from the Harz mountains. The fossils were thought to be of juvenile sauropods -- a family of dinosaurs that includes the 90-tonne, 45-metre long seismosaurus. But palaeontologist Martin Sander says the bones came from six-metre dinosaurs weighing about a tonne.

Compressed marks, like tree marks, were found under fossil bones, says Sander. "The dinosaurs must have been fully grown when they died," he says in a report in Nature (Vol 441, No 7094).