Roaring back to life

"Thailand really is the hot spot for research and discovery" in Southeast Asia, said Richard Cloutier, a professor of paleontology visiting from Canada's Universite du Quebec a Rimouski.

China, Mongolia and Russia remain major fossil-hunting grounds, while experts say the part of the Earth that is now Thailand also offers important clues to dinosaur evolution.

"The time frame of our discoveries fills a geological gap or missing link present in records of other countries," said Suravech Suteethorn, deputy director of Mahasarakham University's Palaeontological Research and Education Centre.

"Our local dinosaurs are like missing jigsaw pieces that help establish evolutionary connections, particularly around the Jurassic and Cretaceous period transition, approximately 140 million years ago."