“We don’t just have a skeleton,” one researcher involved said. “We have a dinosaur as it would have been.”
It is being celebrated by scientists as the most well-preserved dinosaur specimen ever found. That’s why you cannot see its bones – they remain covered by intact skin and armor.
Discovered accidentally by miners in Canada, this fossilized nodosaur dates back over 110 million years, and remarkably, its skin still retains visible patterns. According to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada, which recently unveiled the find, the dinosaur is so well-preserved that instead of a ‘fossil’, we could safely call it a ‘dinosaur mummy.’
The researchers examining the find were amazed at the level of preservation of the specimen, as its skin, armor, and even some internal organs were still intact, something they had never encountered before.
“You don’t need to use much imagination to reconstruct it; if you just squint your eyes a bit, you could almost believe it was sleeping,” one researcher said.
Previously, only skeletons of nodosaurs had been discovered, which look like this:
This dinosaur was built like a tank. The nodosaur was an enormous four-legged herbivore protected by a spiky, plated armor. It weighed approximately 3,000 pounds.
To give you an idea of how intact the mummified nodosaur is: it still weighs 2,500 pounds!
Although how the dinosaur mummy could remain so intact for so long remains somewhat of a mystery, researchers suggest that the nodosaur may have been swept away by a flooded river and carried out to sea, where it eventually sank to the ocean floor.
As millions of years passed, minerals could have settled on the dinosaur’s armor and skin. This might help explain why the creature was preserved in such a lifelike form.
Researchers have named the 5.5 metre (18-foot-long) nodosaur Borealopelta markmitchelli, in honour of Royal Tyrrell Museum technician Mark Mitchell, who spent over 7,000 hours carefully unearthing the fossil from its rocky grave.
But how ‘lifelike’ is the specimen really? Well, apparently the preservation was so good that researchers were able to tell the dinosaur’s skin color by using mass spectrometry techniques to detect the actual pigments.
This way they found out that the nodosaur’s coloring was a dark reddish brown on the top of the body – and lighter on the underside. Since this dinosaur was an herbivore, its skin color must have played a role in protecting it from the enormous carnivores present at the time.
And the fact that we’re talking about a massive, heavily-armored dinosaur illustrates just how dangerous those predators must have been…
The nodosaur was found by an unsuspecting excavator operator that uncovered the historic discovery while digging in an oil sands mine, according to the museum’s news release about the exhibit. 7,000 painstaking reconstruction hours later, the nodosaur was ready to meet the public.
As if the preservation of skin, armor, and guts weren’t impressive enough, the dinosaur mummy is also unique in that it was preserved in three dimensions, with the original shape of the animal retained.
According to one researcher, “it will go down in science history as one of the most beautiful and best preserved dinosaur specimens – the Mona Lisa of dinosaurs.”
The Mona Lisa of dinosaurs… It is indeed, isn’t it?
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Washed away by the great flood..it’s only 4,500 yrs old
Racism is a problem in the world today. It can be seen in many different ways, but one of the most obvious forms of racism is when people treat each other differently because of their skin color. Racism can be seen in many different places and situations, but it has been around for a very long time. The first recorded example of racism was back in ancient Greece when slaves were treated differently than their owners. Throughout history, there have been many examples where people have discriminated against others based on race or skin color.
In this day and age, we should all be able to accept people for who they are.
Right, but how does this relate to this dinousaur?
nuh uh
this is false
What is false? And why? Please explain your stance.
can’t wait to see this for myself
Why is every article about this find showing photos of the wrong dinosaur? That is not a Hadrosaur.
The article says it’s a Nodosaur, not a Hadrosaur.
This is genuinely amazing that they were able to recover this. It will be remembered in science history forever. I cannot get over how amazing this, for them to have even been able to find out it’s skin color? Thats just incredible! Not to mention it was accidentally discovered by- I think it said miners? It’s amazing it wasn’t really damaged, this is just amazing, I seriously think it is.
And it just happens to look EXACTLY how the scientists imagined dinosaurs to look like based on skeletal remains. Come. On.
If you would only study science textbooks like you studied the Bible- how enlightened your would Truly be
Wow the Bible Thumpers are going nuts
Fake.
Proof? Exactly, none, how do you expect them to make a fake skeleton-?
Not a great glooded river but the great flood. Nothing else could’ve happened that could accounted for so many fossils and mummy’s of dinosaurs being found, what could’ve killed them all without compromising the landscape burning to ash, and what could have split the earth up so bad? Surely not a meteor, but the Great flood actioned by the I Am that I Am of the Bible.
The article’s use of vernacular language obscures a primary fact that many commenters have not understood: The fossil is 100% rock. There is no flesh or original organic material (other than traces, such as pigments). Fossilization is a process of permineralization and polymerization.
Yet the article says: “so well-preserved that instead of a ‘fossil’, we could safely call it a ‘dinosaur mummy.’”
and:
“The creature’s skin, armor, and even some of its guts were intact.”