New sites could prove dinosaurs roamed the region

KOTA BARU: Local geologists have found new potential sites in Gua Musang that could help prove that dinosaurs roamed the region.

However, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan Geology Department chief Dr Arham Muchtar Achmad said it could only declare its findings after carrying out further scientific analysis, including radiometric dating to ascertain the age of the fossils found so far.

He said a scientific expedition would be conducted in July together with, among others, the Wildlife and National Parks Department to gather more evidence on the existence of dinosaurs in Gua Musang hundreds of million years ago.

“Gua Musang is also part of the Gagau Plateau,” he said.

The Gagau Plateau shares similar rock sequence and geomorphological features with other Jurassic and Cretaceous red beds of the world, including China.

Other researchers, said Dr Arham, had discovered dinosaur fossils in Terengganu in 2014 – in Sungai Cicir, Gunung Gagau and Tasik Kenyir.

Universiti Malaya’s paleontology team also discovered the fossilised tooth of a herbivorous dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in Pahang about three years ago.

In 2015, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia geologist Prof Dr Mohd Shafeea Leman and his team found what was believed to be dinosaur footprints and fragments of bones in the Gagau Plateau of Kelantan.

In March this year, Dr Arham announced the discovery of a Trilobite fossil in Felda Aring in Kelantan which raised his hopes of finding evidence that dinosaurs lived in the Kuala Koh National Park in Gua Musang.

Trilobites are a hard-shelled marine life form that existed 520 million years ago and went extinct before the age of the dinosaurs.