Vol. 4 [UT Stories] UT Researcher Dr. Jung and UTCT Technology Enable Formal Identification of New Dinosaur Species Related to “Dooly”

• Dr. Jongyun Jung, a visiting post-doctoral researcher at UT Jackson School of Geosciences and his colleagues’ discovery of a new dinosaur species, Doolysaurus huhmini was made possible through micro-CT scanning at the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography (UTCT) facility. UTCT is a pioneering institution that was the first in the world to make this imaging technology accessible to academic researchers, established nearly three decades ago. (UT News)

• Around 100 million years ago, a juvenile dinosaur roughly the size of a turkey died in what is now South Korea's Aphae Island; the specimen was unearthed in 2023 by researcher Hyemin Jo at the UT dinosaur center and has since been formally recognized as an entirely new species. The newly identified species was given the name Doolysaurus huhmini — the first part referencing a widely recognized cartoon dinosaur character familiar to generations of Koreans, and the second part paying tribute to veteran Korean paleontologist Min Huh, whose three decades of contributions include founding the Korean Dinosaur Research Center and championing UNESCO-backed efforts to protect fossil sites across the country. (UT News, Houston Public Media)

• This marks the first time in 15 years that a new dinosaur species has been formally described from Korea, and it is also the first Korean dinosaur fossil recovered with any portion of the skull intact. (UT News, Houston Public Media)

• Prior to scanning, only leg bones and vertebrae were visible; the skull and a significantly larger portion of the skeleton only became apparent once the fossil was examined using X-ray imaging, producing what the research team described as an unexpected and thrilling revelation. (UT News, Houston Public Media) • Confirming the specimen as a genuinely new species required painstaking comparison of every skeletal feature against all previously documented dinosaur species, a process that demanded examining each structural detail of the bones and skull to rule out any overlap with known taxa. (Houston Public Media) • Based on skeletal anatomy, Doolysaurus is categorized as a thescelosaurid — a two-legged dinosaur group with a presence in both East Asia and North America during the mid-Cretaceous period, spanning roughly 113 to 94 million years ago. (UT News)

• The find adds a meaningful piece to scientists' understanding of how dinosaur lineages were connected across what are now two widely separated continents, shedding light on the degree of exchange between Far East Asian and North American species during this particular geological window. (Houston Public Media)

• The individual was estimated to be around two years old at the time of death and had not yet reached full size; adults of the species may have grown to roughly twice the juvenile's dimensions, and the animal may have had a coat of filament-like fibers, though none were preserved in this particular specimen. (UT News, Houston Public Media)

• Dozens of small stones found within the fossil indicate the animal swallowed them to aid digestion, pointing to an omnivorous diet encompassing plants, insects, and small animals; it was the presence of these intact stones that first suggested the rest of the skeleton might also be well-preserved, prompting the decision to pursue CT scanning. (UT News)

• Unlike hand preparation, which can take the better part of a decade for fossils encased in hard rock, CT imaging allowed the team to map the full extent of the fossil within a matter of months, followed by over a year of anatomical analysis by the research team. (UT News)

• South Korea has historically been associated with trace fossils such as tracks, nests, and eggs rather than actual skeletal remains; the lead researcher suspects that bone fossils may in fact exist in greater numbers but remain concealed within rock, and plans further fieldwork on Aphae Island with the aim of uncovering additional specimens. (UT News, Houston Public Media)

(Sources: UT News https://news.utexas.edu/2026/03/19/fossil-x-ray-reveals-new-species-of-baby-dino-named-for-iconic-korean-cartoon/ ; Houston Public Media https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/texas/2026/03/23/546827/meet-doolysaurus-the-small-and-maybe-fuzzy-new-dinosaur-discovered-by-ut-austin-researchers/ )