An online fundraiser has helped to restore a complete fossil skeleton of a hadrosaurid dinosaur that was decapitated in the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami five years ago.
The 8-meter-long Tsintaosaurus had been on display at the coastal Hirono town office in Fukushima Prefecture since 1988, but its skull fell to the ground during the disaster on March 11, 2011.
The town is located within 30 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and around half the 5,500 residents still live in evacuation outside Hirono.
Fossilized remains of neck bones and teeth of hadrosaurid dinosaurs have been unearthed in Hirono. The Hirono town office’s Tsintaosaurus was imported from China.
Paleontologists around Japan organized an online fund-raising drive to restore the Tsintaosaurus and replace and reinforce parts of the skeletal structure that had grown weak with age. Repair work started at a workshop in Gunma Prefecture in spring last year.
The restoration process was completed at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo’s Ueno Park in Taito Ward on March 2.
The dinosaur will be displayed at the Dinosaur Expo 2016 special exhibition at the science museum from March 8. The Asahi Shimbun is a co-sponsor of the exhibition.
The Tsintaosaurus is scheduled to return to Hirono in 2017.