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Remains of two dinosaur “mummies” found in Wyoming According to researchers, they were so well preserved more than 100 years ago that their skin, spikes and hooves are still intact.
duck-bill skeleton dinosaur, Edmontosaurus annectens – which existed at the end of the Cretaceous period more than 66 million years ago – were found in 1908 in a rugged area of east-central Wyoming.
However, Re-examination of those fossils by paleontologists But University of Chicago It was discovered that, in addition to the bones, a thin layer of soil protected the mummified body parts beneath.
“Amazingly preserved” flesh, spikes and even hooves still intact, According to a new research paper Published last week In ScienceSoft tissues are rarely preserved in fossils, making accurate reconstruction of the creature’s appearance difficult.
But because of the large area of preserved outer skin surface, specimens provide the most complete view of a large dinosaur to date.
“Two ‘mummies‘End-Cretaceous, duck-billed dinosaurs Edmontosaurus annectens A fleshy crest on the neck and torso, an interdigitating spike row on the hips and tail, and protected hooves covering the toes of the hind feet,” reads the abstract of the paper.
“A series of tests shows that all fossil integuments (skin, spikes, hooves) are preserved as a thin clay template that forms on the surface of the buried carcass during decay before the loss of all soft tissues and organic compounds.”
The researchers noted that such preservation has previously been documented only in underwater settings that are completely devoid of oxygen.
“We’re seeing a complete profile of a dinosaur for the first time,” Paul Sereno, a University of Chicago paleontologist who led the study published in the journal Science, told NBC. “We are confident [in] What it looked like.”
When the specimens were first discovered at the turn of the century, it was assumed that they were fossils of skin structures and body parts. But further investigation of the skeletons and the discovery of two other Edmontosaurus annectenHas completely changed the opinion of scientists.
The paper says one, a late juvenile, is the first sub-adult dinosaur mummy on record and the first large-bodied dinosaur to preserve the fleshy midline above the trunk. It was about 20 feet long.
The second, an adult specimen, is the first hadrosaurid to preserve the entire spike row from the hips to the tip of the tail and the first reptile to preserve wedge-shaped pedal hooves. It was about 40 feet long.