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ISLE OF WIGHT, England — A 9-year-old fossil hunter has had a dinosaur named after her after discovering its fossil at the beach four years ago.
Daisy Morris, from the Isle of Wight, stumbled upon the bone fragments in Nov. 2008, when she was 5 years old. The fossils, 4-centimeter-long pelvis bone fragments, were taken to fossil expert Martin Simpson, who was eventually able to identify them as having come from a new genus of pterosaur: a small, flying bird-like toothless species that lived 115 million years ago in the Lower Cretaceous.
The species would have been similar in size to a crow, Simpson told Isle of Wight Radio. A paper published Monday confirms the name of the dinosaur as Vectidraco daisymorrisae, which translates as "Daisy Morris' Isle of Wight Drago."
"Daisy's family wanted this fossil to be studied and cared for properly, so they did what I and many of my colleagues would say is 'the right thing' and donated it to a museum (The Natural History Museum, London)," Simpson said. "So, we only know of Vectidraco thanks to Daisy: for this reason we named it in her honor."
Daisy has been interested in fossils since age 3, her mom, Sian Morris, told the BBC.
"She has a very good eye for tiny little fossils and found these tiny little black bones sticking out of the mud and decided to dig a bit further and scoop them all out," Morris said. "We are all very proud of her."
The Isle of Wight was recently named the "dinosaur capital of Great Britain" by the Natural History Museum. The confirmation of Daisy's dinosaur discovery came only a week after the discovery of a nearly complete skeleton of a 12-foot-long dinosaur.
