Popularity of dinosaur studies grows in Japan as varsity mulls full department

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - The interest among students and academics in dinosaur studies is growing in Japan and a university has decided to establish a full department to specialize in the subject.

Okayama University of Science in western Japan has had already one course on dinosaur studies but will now expand it to a full department, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported on Monday.

Dinosaurs first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago, although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is a subject of active research.

It will increase the number of lectures, opportunities for field work, as well as widening research to include areas such as biosciences, in addition to geology and paleontology, it added.

“We aim to make it a new educational and research hub in western Japan for studying dinosaurs, and hope to use our strength as a comprehensive science university to advance research,” said Mototaka Saneyoshi, an associate professor, who studies dinosaurs at the university.

It was in 2014 when the university’s Department of Biosphere-Geosphere Science established a course on dinosaurs and paleontology.

When the new department opens next spring, the university will offer seats for 45 students, which is around 50% increase from the original course while the number of professors will be increased to eight, up from current four.

The dinosaur studies began when the department took over a fossil dig project in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

Its work discovered “one of the world's largest dinosaur footprints and developed new age-determination methods.”

The university decided to upgrade the course as the number of people applying in recent years has increased to around two to three times the number of places available.

“We hope to discover new aspects of dinosaur ecology that we would not have been able to discover under the previous course,” Saneyoshi said, as the university project in Gobi Desert makes majority of participants thus far.