Nobita's dinosaur turns out not to be a dinosaur at all?

Under the setting sun, Nobita bids farewell to Hinosuke in tears. Although surrounded by the tribe, Hinosuke still misses his former master. In order to make it survive better, Nobita endures the sadness of parting and steps on the time machine, disappearing into the sky with his thoughts for Hinosuke...

This scene at the end of the movie "Nobita's Dinosaur" brought tears to the eyes of countless viewers. "Nobita's Dinosaur" is a long story in the Doraemon series of science fiction comics created by Japanese cartoonist Fujiko F. Fujio. The movie of the same name was released in 1980, which was also the first movie version of the Doraemon series. A new version was remade in 2006. It tells the story of Nobita and Suneo accidentally digging up a "dinosaur egg" fossil after making a bet, and successfully hatching a cute cub with the help of the time bag, naming it Hinosuke, and finally helping it return to the Cretaceous period.

Fujiko Fujio's creative team has a special liking for dinosaurs and other ancient creatures | "Doraemon"

The Cretaceous adventure of Doraemon, Nobita and others in the film has brought back fond memories of childhood for countless people. However, while being moved, many people did not notice that Nobita's "dinosaur" was not a dinosaur at all!

A high school student's amazing discovery

Surrounded by the sea, Japan suffers from a lack of resources. The small land area also determines that their paleontological fossil resources are certainly far less abundant than those of major countries such as China and the United States. However, the Japanese enthusiasm for paleontology is beyond our imagination. After the Meiji Restoration, Western natural sciences entered Japan with European ships. The novel paleontology also attracted many Japanese scholars and cultivated a group of outstanding paleontologists. Paleontological and geological terms such as "Dinosaur", "Mammoth" and "Cambrian" were translated into Chinese at this time.

Just like Nobita in the movie, almost every Japanese kid has the experience of digging dinosaur fossils in the backyard. High school student Suzuki Nao is such a dream-chasing teenager with the dream of paleontology. In his spare time, Suzuki Nao strolled on the river beach or hiked in the mountains and forests, never giving up the hope of digging up dinosaur fossils. Perhaps it was the years of hard work that moved the god of luck. In 1968, Suzuki Nao discovered a prehistoric shark tooth fossil on the bank of the Oku River in Irumasawa, Oku Town, Iwaki City. Although it was not a dinosaur fossil, this small tooth aroused his fighting spirit - Suzuki Nao firmly believed that there must be an amazing discovery under his feet. As the excavation deepened, Suzuki Nao actually successfully discovered a prehistoric animal's spine.

Clavicle and forelimb bones of Diplodocus suzukii, collected at the National Museum of Nature and Science | Momotarou2012 / Wikimedia Commons

Japan's paleontology superstar

Although he knew that the vertebra in his hand was extremely valuable, Suzuki Nao, with his limited skills, could not identify the owner of the bone for the time being. He immediately wrote a letter to Dr. Ikuo Obata of the Tokyo National Museum of Science and Technology, reporting his discovery in Iwaki City. After reading the letter, Ikuo Obata took immediate action and took his colleague Yoshikazu Hasegawa to investigate and collect samples together. It was pitiful that the two experts could not apply for project funds when the excavation work was about to begin. After discussion, the two could only pay for the expenses out of their own pockets with their meager salaries and began the arduous excavation work.

Reconstruction of the rock formation where Diplodocus suzukii was found | Tataroko / Wikimedia Commons

After four years of excavation, scientists finally unearthed seven plesiosaur fossils at the fossil site, including one adult specimen and six juvenile specimens. Experts named this newly discovered plesiosaur "Futabasaurus" after the double-leaf group of the stratum where the fossils were unearthed, and the specific epithet of the model species was "suzukii" to honor the contribution of Suzuki Nao. The Futabasaurus fossils were soon exhibited in many places in Japan and are currently on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science.

With its twists and turns, complete specimens, and the help of media publicity, Diplodocus quickly became the best representative of Japanese paleontology. To this day, when it comes to the most famous paleontology in Japan, Diplodocus is still the undisputed top name. It is worth mentioning that the young Suzuki Nao later became a paleontologist as he wished, working at the Iwaki City Ammonite Research Center, continuing his research on prehistoric marine animals.

Mounted fossil of Diplodocus suzukii | Dick Thomas Johnson / Flickr

Confusion about the name

Since the moment it was discovered, the Diplodocus has captured the hearts of all Japanese people. As an island country with extremely scarce fossil species and numbers, the huge and complete plesiosaur fossils are enough to make Japanese children who love paleontology scream - not to mention that more than one was found in the local area! Doraemon's father Fujiko F. Fujio would naturally not miss the excellent creative material of Diplodocus. Since 1975, the creative team has serialized related adventure stories in magazines, and finally launched Doraemon's first super-long work "Nobita's Dinosaur", in which the protagonist Hinosuke is a Diplodocus.

Interestingly, if we read it in the traditional genus-species order, the type species of Futaba Dragon is "Suzuki Futaba Dragon", but many people think that the cute Hinosuke in the movie is "Futaba Suzuki Dragon". What's going on?

National Museum of Nature and Science | Riko Ibe/Wikimedia Commons

It turns out that although it was well-known as early as the 1980s and the skeleton restoration had been completed, the naming of the Diplodocus was delayed for nearly 40 years-until 2006, scientists officially described the Suzuki Diplodocus. Before that, both the academic community and the public called it by the common name "Double-leaf Suzuki Dragon". Due to the lack of professional researchers, Japanese scholars have found it difficult to distinguish the Diplodocus from the previously discovered plesiosaurs for a long time. Later, with the intervention of the research team returning from overseas studies, the identification work gradually accelerated. The road to naming the Diplodocus was difficult and tortuous. Professor Yoshikazu Hasegawa, who participated in the research, said, "Dr. Hasegawa back then has also become Director Hasegawa!"

Shark Attack

Diplodocus lived in the late Cretaceous period 85 million years ago and belonged to the Elasmosauridae family of the Plesiosaur order. They were 6.4 to 9.2 meters long and weighed 3 to 4 tons. They were a large plesiosaur. Diplodocus inherited the tradition of the Elasmosaurus family, with a long neck, a small head, a short tail and four flippers as its main features.

Flippers of a diapsid dragon | Momotarou2012 / Wikimedia Commons

Japan in the Cretaceous was also an archipelago surrounded by the ocean. Fish swam in the shallow sea, seabirds hunted along the sea surface, turtles paddled their flippers slowly, and the small-headed and long-necked Diplodocus looked for food along the sea surface. Diplodocus had sharp and dense teeth in its mouth, and with its slender neck, even if its body had not yet approached the school of fish, its fangs would pierce the body of the small fish like a hook on a fishing rod. In addition to fish, Diplodocus would not miss cephalopods such as squid and octopus, and crustaceans such as shrimp and crabs. Traces of gastroliths were also found in the abdomen of Diplodocus. Many elasmosaurus, including Diplodocus, have the habit of swallowing stones into their stomachs. The mainstream view is that these gastroliths can make it easier for them to grind food and promote digestion.

Reconstructions of early plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs | Wikimedia Commons

Don't think that Diplodocus had such a carefree life in the ocean. Paleontologists once found 87 shark teeth around a Diplodocus fossil, 5 of which were deeply embedded in the bones of Diplodocus. The right humerus of this Diplodocus was left with horrifying shark bite marks. According to identification, these teeth belonged to a prehistoric shark called the northern Cretalamina (Cretalamna borealis). Cretalamina was once widely distributed in the seas around the world and is a shark with strong adaptability. Although it is not clear whether this Diplodocus died from a shark attack or was dismembered by sharks after death, experts speculate that there were at least six to seven Cretalamina sharks biting Diplodocus at the time. It seems that Diplodocus was also surrounded by sharks and sharks.

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