Oni Science
  • Home
  • Environment
  • Humans
  • Nature
  • Physics
  • Space
  • Tech
  • Video
  • Contact Us
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Amazon Disclaimer
    • DMCA / Copyrights Disclaimer
Skip to content
Oni Science
Your Daily Science News
  • Environment
  • Humans
  • Nature
  • Physics
  • Space
  • Tech
  • Video
  • Contact Us
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Amazon Disclaimer
    • DMCA / Copyrights Disclaimer
Nature

Researchers Claim to Have Found a Rare Dinosaur ‘Mummy’ With Some Fossilized Skin

September 16, 2022 by admin 0 Comments

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Pinterest
Share on LinkedIn

Bits of a fossil discovered jutting out from a Canadian cliff in 2021 could be attached to a rare complete dinosaur skeleton, complete with fossilized skin.

A volunteer field scout, Teri Kaskie, noticed a strange protrusion on a hillside in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, and University of Reading paleoecologist Brian Pickles, who was leading the search, identified it as a hadrosaur.

“This is a very exciting discovery, and we hope to complete the excavation over the next two field seasons,” Pickles says. “Based on the small size of the tail and foot, this is likely to be a juvenile.”

Duck-billed hadrosaurs are herbivorous dinosaurs that were common during the late Cretaceous, prospering between 75 and 65 million years ago. This one appears to be only around 4 meters (13 feet) long, whereas adults can reach 10 meters.

Currently, only its tail and right hind foot are in view, giving researchers a look at its intact fossilized skin. Together, these parts are posed in a way that suggests the dinosaur’s entire skeleton lies intact within its ancient encasing.

Diagram of exposed fossil and possible position of the rest of the skeleton.
(The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology)

“Hadrosaur fossils are relatively common in this part of the world, but another thing that makes this find unique is the fact that large areas of the exposed skeleton are covered in fossilized skin,” explains paleontologist Caleb Brown from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology.

“This suggests that there may be even more preserved skin within the rock, which can give us further insight into what the hadrosaur looked like.”

As its skin has been so well preserved, it must have been covered up quickly upon its death around 76 million years ago.

“This animal probably either died and then immediately got covered over by sand and silt in the river,” Pickles told USA Today. “Or it was killed because a river bank fell onto it.”

“If we’re really lucky, then some of the other internal organs might have preserved as well.”

Close up of skin bearing ankle bone fossil.
The ankle fossil with skin imprints. (The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology)

It will take months of painstaking work to carve out the block of stone containing the fossil while also protecting the bits already freed from the stone.

The stone will then go to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, where researchers will work to carefully expose the rest of the fossilized remains. This process could take years. With any luck, they will find an intact skull to tell them which species of hadrosaur it is.

“Although adult duck-billed dinosaurs are well represented in the fossil record, younger animals are far less common,” says Pickles. “This means the find could help paleontologists to understand how hadrosaurs grew and developed.”

This article was originally published by Sciencealert.com. Read the original article here.

Articles You May Like

Astronomers Studied More Than 5,000 Black Holes to Figure Out Why They Twinkle
The Mysterious Asymmetry of Jupiter’s Asteroids May Finally Be Explained
Incredible Footage Shows Planets Circling a Star Light-Years Away
Scientists Reveal The Most Precise Map of All The Matter in The Universe
It’s Possible Neanderthals Evolved So They Wouldn’t Smell Their Own Stink, Study Finds

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Articles

  • A Hidden Food Web Exists in The Desert, And It Thrives on Death
  • It’s Possible Neanderthals Evolved So They Wouldn’t Smell Their Own Stink, Study Finds
  • We Can Now Hear The ‘Sound’ of One of The Most Beautiful Stars
  • Astronomers Studied More Than 5,000 Black Holes to Figure Out Why They Twinkle
  • Astronomers Find What May Be a Habitable World 31 Light-Years Away
  • Bar Graphs Induce a Hidden Bias in Interpretation, Experiment Shows
  • This Small Australian Marsupial Is Quite Literally Dying For Sex
  • ‘Polluted Realism’: How Monet’s Art Mirrors The Evolution of Smog
  • The First Stars May Have Been Heavier Than 100,000 Suns
  • An Incredible Thing Happens When Dolphins And Humans Team Up

Space

  • We Can Now Hear The ‘Sound’ of One of The Most Beautiful Stars
  • Astronomers Studied More Than 5,000 Black Holes to Figure Out Why They Twinkle
  • Astronomers Find What May Be a Habitable World 31 Light-Years Away
  • The First Stars May Have Been Heavier Than 100,000 Suns
  • Stunning Green Comet Will Be Closest to Earth Today, at Peak Brightness

Physics

  • A Lost Interview With The ‘Father of The Big Bang’ Was Just Discovered
  • This Physicist Says Electrons Spin in Quantum Physics After All. Here’s Why
  • Physicists Break Record Firing a Laser Down Their University Corridor
  • Scientists Have Built a Macroscopic Tractor Beam Using Laser Light
  • Firing a Laser Into The Sky Can Divert Lightning, Experiment Shows

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • March 2017
  • November 2016

Categories

  • Environment
  • Humans
  • Nature
  • Physics
  • Space
  • Tech
  • Video

Useful Links

  • Contact Us
  • About us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Amazon Disclaimer
  • DMCA / Copyrights Disclaimer

Recent Posts

  • A Hidden Food Web Exists in The Desert, And It Thrives on Death
  • It’s Possible Neanderthals Evolved So They Wouldn’t Smell Their Own Stink, Study Finds
  • We Can Now Hear The ‘Sound’ of One of The Most Beautiful Stars
  • Astronomers Studied More Than 5,000 Black Holes to Figure Out Why They Twinkle
  • Astronomers Find What May Be a Habitable World 31 Light-Years Away

Copyright © 2023 by Oni Science. All rights reserved. All articles, images, product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement unless specified. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Powered by WordPress using DisruptPress Theme.