NOTHING BETTER THAN A BIG BUMMED DINOSAUR

Big-bummed dinosaur found almost intact

Tuesday, 04 December 2007
AFP  News in Science

This just fascinated me, I remember quite a few years ago when  a paleontologist said he had found a fossilized heart in one Dinosaur ribcage, he was ridiculed and told it was just a hunk of mud turned to stone by other senior "knowing" paleontologists.  Over the years the findings are leaning towards it being a heart.   Too often do findings that do not follow what is expected, what is the "norm"  are just thrown out because it upsets the findings of other scientists.  Gee kind of just like every day life. -- John

This hadrosaur's larger-than-expected backside allowed it to run at up to 45 kilometres an hour (Source: National Geographic Society)

Scientists have revealed a partly mummified dinosaur, complete with fossilised skin and muscles, an incredibly rare find that sheds new light on the species that once ruled the earth.

The remains of the duck-billed hadrosaur were first discovered in 1999 by a schoolboy in a treasure trove of fossils called Hell Creek, in North Dakota.

They were then brought to the attention of UK palaeontologist Dr Phil Manning, who is based at the  University of Manchester.

After two years of excavation work, Manning and his team unveiled the exceptionally well preserved 'dino-mummy' in Washington this week, describing this sort of discovery as the Holy Grail of palaeontology.

"Palaeontology is used to finding single bones. Occasionally we find a few bones together, articulated, but very, very rarely do we find a complete skeleton," says Manning.

"This comes off the scale. This is a remarkable find, a breathtaking find that defies logic."

The herbivore hadrosaur, nicknamed Dakota, lived 67 million years ago. It was about 7-9 metres long and weighed 3.6 tonnes.

Preserved in mud

Dakota remained so intact because it was quickly buried in a layer of muddy sediment, and preserved its shape once its soft tissue turned to fossil, the scientists say.

Hell Creek, which stretches into the badlands of Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming, has yielded several Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons including what Manning says is the world's first known T. rex footprint.

But Dr Matthew Carrano, dinosaur curator at the  Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, says Dakota is one of less than 10 'mummified' dinosaur specimens discovered so far worldwide.

Edmontosaurus fossil mummy
Mummified Edmontosaurus Dinosaur Fossil on sand
Lynton Gardiner (c) Dorling Kindersley, Courtesy of The American Museum of Natural History  (This is a picture of one of the other dinosaur mummies that has been found -- John)

 

Helped by funding from the National Geographic Society, Manning is taking a detailed look at the remains in a giant Boeing scanner normally used to test aircraft.

Large backside

Armed with that 3D insight into Dakota's muscle mass, the scientists estimate that its backside was 25% larger than previously thought for a hadrosaur.

With a larger rear end, it could have reached top speeds of 45 kilometres per hour, quick enough to outrun a T. rex.

Dakota's skin envelope also suggested evidence of stripes that would have produced a camouflage pattern, also handy for evading predators.

Because the hadrosaur was so well preserved, the researchers could more accurately estimate the spacing between its vertebrae, giving a gap of about 1 centimetre between each bone.

In contrast, most natural history museums display their dinosaur fossils with the bones stacked tightly together.

Longer beasts

Manning's research therefore suggests that some dinosaurs were at least a metre longer than previously thought.

"Our dinosaur mummy makes many other dinosaurs look like road kill, simply because the evidence we're getting from our creature is so complete compared to the disjointed sort of skeletons that we usually have to draw conclusions from," he says.