“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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Creationism should be renamed cretinism since only cretins believe in it.
i love you sir
Like Isaac Newton, and Gregor Mendel. Right?
I, sir, am not a cretin and I believe in creationism. I also believe that dinosaurs roamed the earth and some of them have evolved – or adapted – to modern times. however, I do NOT believe that man evolved from the ape. We were too suddenly in the picture, in too many different varieties.
All mankind originating from a single man and woman seems doubtful as, in the Bible, Cain goes to the land of nod, east of Eden. When there, he “had relations with his wife, who conceived and bore a son who was named Enoch,” (Gen. 4:17) Therefore, more humans were created, doubtless after Adam and Eve were cast from the Garden.
you all realize this argument is pointless right? You really should put all this thought and effort towards something important, like opening your eyes and seeing that the worlds leaders are currently using a flu-like virus, that was created in a laboratory, doesn’t kill any more people than the flu does every year, and then through a vicious propaganda campaign make sure they keep the people in the world in a prisoners without bars, keeping them from being productive, making sure their survival completely depends upon their decisions and wants and needs, and keeping the public controlled and manipulated through fear tactics and dis-misinformation.
?
do your parents know you’re on the internet unsupervised
Maybe you should get your facts straight before you post.
Thank you.
Maybe you should stop being a TOOL for the crazy left. All you do is cry fouls when someone has a different view.
Precisely what you are doing here
Wow another crazy right wing fantasy.
The crazy right you mean. You people are nuts and will believe anything that fool in the wh tells you.
Could be a a leftie too. I know a few left-wing Covid conspiracy theorists.
Wow. Russian bot hit all the talking point.
Ur amazing ur also right !!!
Wow another crazy right wing fantasy.
You’re just ignorant and completely illogic in your thoughts. The problem is that you have the same right of vote of intelligent people, that’s the real problem.
Then the vote goes through a Dominion voting machine ;))
While I agree with this I think you are off topic here lol. Should join a chat just for this type of stuff. This is a thread about this mummified creature.
No point in telling anyone this 99% of them still wont believe it when it’s been goin on for yrs its pathetic but I second you with your comment
Dinosaurs? ?? ??
That definitely escalated quickly. ?
This discovery has nothing to do with archaeology. Just thought I’d mention that.
And your comment has nothing to do with the article.
You do realize neither of your comments were about this article right? All you did was bad mouth people for believing in something you dont. How about you keep your negativity elsewhere. Ignorant, should have been your name.
So you’re telling me that a million years ago… nothing exploded for no reason… and created… everything? Where’s the logic in that. There’s no way this thing was around hundreds of millions of years ago and we are just now finding it with how preserved it is…
????????????????
Actually it happened about 14 BILLION years ago and yes, this fossil is over 100 million years old.
It was under the sand and it’s the first found and excavated. Who know what people use to dig up and find before they could send new and pictures around the world? We might have already found this and just no way to I’m cover it now that’s a crazyer though.
Can you try that again in English?
So, Abby, would you have us believe that 5400 years ago a being which came from nowhere created the universe out of nothing, made people out of dust, was dissatisfied with the female for claiming equality with the male, evicted the female and made another from the male’s rib so she’d be subservient, etc.? Where’s the logic in that?
Asking for a friend.
Has anyone ran all these facts by Karen?
FFS! I nearly spat my pizza out!!
ha ha me too
#MeToo but swallowed pizza and choked
Hahahaha! Yes :)))
This is the best comment ever
Still no 1/2 evolved Fossil records
6 million years old soft tissue still pliable?
Exactly. “It must’ve been swept away by a flood and fell to an ocean floor.” Of course we know why that is!!!
every species is a transition species between its ancestor and its descendants, foolish creationist.
There are no transition species. All species are whole, some have adapted to their environment, but they did not change their species. Also the ages of the earth most often stated are not factual, but merely theories.
Are you quoting AIG, ICR, or Inmate #06452-017? Because I could debunk your claim but it’s just faster to know who you are quoting up front to save time
Not 6 million years old, 110 million years old soft tissue. ??? Such a silly thing to believe.
it’s not soft, it has been fossilized, i.e. mineralized
Agree
Caine was the first son of ADam if I read correctly.
Do it bro, become an archaeologist, or an archaeopalentologist, or whatever! I let someone talk me out it many years ago, to my great regret now…. but the bug never got out of my system. Good luck to you.
Always love reading the comments and back and forth arguments amongst everyone. It’s more entertaining than any television lol
I agree
Dinosaurs were here when humankind were around…
Wasn’t until the 1940s that we started naming them Dinosaurs….
The old scholars once called them Dragons…
And archeologists have proof that they were here in later times…
They never died millions of years ago, They were hunted to extinction…
You gotta put the pieces together…
Explain all the kingdoms in brittania and in china with Dragon symbols?
LOL, no, no… should have known the creationists would show up with their baloney.
atleast they know how to spell….
Agree
Sigh! Oh well, I’ll go paint the lawn again…..
Dinosaurs were around when humans were here???? You missed biologic courses.. Dinosaurs lived between – 245 and – 65 millions years ago and humans have appeared 2,5 millions years ago.. No way they can run into each other.. ???
FOOL! hUMANS are not much older than HIS-story…Humans have only been on the planet for thousands of years, if humans were here for millions of years the earth would be encrusted with skeletons…FOOL!
No, dude Humans and Dinosaurs are separated by millions of years. only a creationist will tell you that ridiculous argument
I, too, find chicken tasty for lunch or dinner. Not usually breakfast, though. Funny, that.
?
The stupidity is strong here.
Watch the film 1,000,000 BC for the real truth.
Reading people’s arguments is very interesting considering the fact i’m 13 and just reading this because it’s what i want to do with my life.
Go for your master or a doctorate, I loved working in the Field of Archaeology, very rewarding and great, smart people.
Arguing in comment sections is what you wanna do with your life?
He’s 13 be nice. He never stated anything argumentative. Grow up.
Learning about dinosaurs and fossils is wonderful however shouldn’t you be on the cheerleading squad or a soccer team instead of just reading peoples comments/back-and-forth ranting about may or may not be in this case truest of facts about this incredible rate absolutely beautiful specimen..
Don’t quit your day job is my advice.
You go, Blaze! This is a fascinating field of study and I wish I had pursued it when I had the chance. I enjoy articles like this and you, at the young age of 13 and having an interest in it is wonderful. I advocate for the PhD as well. It’ll open many more doors for you. NO, you should not have be going to games, and being a cheerleader if that is not on your list of enjoyable activities. You be you. Hugs.
Good for you Blaze that’s awesome . I hope your dreams come true
Ignore any negative or sarcastic comments. The adults are usually more childish then any child! You follow your dreams and you will go to work daily doing something you love. You can accomplish anything you put your heart and hard work into. Good luck to you, I hope to read some of your fascinating and educational articles in the future.
Cool dinosaur
haha I love this comment. its like in the sea of random and ignorant arguments, theres just someone who is just enjoying the Dinosaur.. you are what we need more in life. lmaoo
Evolution is real. This is millions of years old. Your religious beliefs don’t change science as much as many seem to wish it would. This is an amazing find or a well preserved nodosaur.
Take your meds.
You first.
Agreed, yet if evolution is about improving, shedding why are humans in a degenerative state?
Because humans are destroying their environment and planet with toxic poisons, faster than humans (and most other life forms) can “evolve” to exist with all the forms of pollution.
We’ve stopped evolution with modern science and medicine.
“…why are humans in a degenerative state?”
Religion, mainly.
Truth
Technology is the most likely cause of evolution slowing for humans. When you remove the hardships and pressures of survival, evolution will slow because there is no adaptation needed to increase the species chances at flourishing. Evolution hasn’t stopped for us. It just slowed down and will adjust accordingly. Nature has never had to experience the level of tech that we now use daily. So things will be getting weird in the face of new lower survival pressures of science. Over the next thousands and millions of years if we make it that long. It’s kind of self explanatory if you have a basic understanding of evolution.
How would religious beliefs contradict this find? Who this thinks religious beliefs change science? -A Christian dude
Because creationism and evolution are competing theories. You can’t have dinosaurs being millions of years old as science has shown us, with christians saying they are thousands of years old and were here when humans were.
Prove that it evoled !! And just what will you do when a young scientist fiscores the misplace decimal point from decades ago ???55
Prove that it evoled !!
Prove that you can spell if you expect to be taken seriously. Oh, and then get an education other than reading a bunch of 2k year old fairy tales…
Why are they mutually exclusive? I believe in divine creation and I also believe in evolution.
Spontaneous generation is pseudo-science! All life was created by a creator.