A well-preserved fossil of a hadrosaur, akin to a human mummy, has unexpectedly emerged at Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada.
Dinosaur Provincial Park is an area long famous for its paleontological treasures. However, an archaeological team led by Dr. Brian Pickles from the University of Reading in the UK was extremely fortunate when a volunteer named Teri Kaskie discovered the specimen in a state of… naturally protruding from a hillside.
The fossil belongs to a hadrosaur, a group of duck-billed, pig-like herbivorous dinosaurs. The dating of the specimen is still unclear.
“Dinosaur mummy” found in Canada (Photo: UNIVERSITY OF READING).
This specimen has astonished the team of experts, as preliminary checks indicate it could be a rare nearly complete skeleton, with the animal’s skin also preserved—similar to an Egyptian mummy rather than a naturally fossilized creature.
Dr. Caleb Brown from the Royal Tyrrell Museum, a member of the research team, described the specimen as “having large areas of the skeleton covered in fossilized skin.” They believe there may be more layers of dinosaur skin trapped within this precious rock.
This makes it a unique treasure, as finding a nearly complete skeleton is already challenging, but discovering skin is even more incredible, considering that the time span of at least tens of millions of years for dinosaur fossils should have led to the decay of any soft tissue.
The Heritage Daily quoted the authors’ remarks that this special “mummy” dinosaur could provide groundbreaking insights into the appearance and overall anatomy of the creature.
“This is a very exciting discovery, and we hope to complete our work in the next two field seasons. Based on the size of the tail and legs, this could be a juvenile. While adult duck-billed dinosaurs are well represented in the fossil record, juveniles are much less common. Therefore, this discovery could help paleontologists understand how dinosaurs grew and developed,” Dr. Pickles stated.
The rare fossilized skin also presents a golden opportunity for paleontologists to learn what dinosaur skin was actually like. Until now, the dinosaur skin we see in images has been entirely the product of speculation and imagination.
The preservation of soft tissue from ancient animals is a rare occurrence, often happening due to a once-in-a-thousand-years moment that causes the living creature to be “frozen” instantly in a highly preservative material, such as during a sudden and harsh mudslide.
The authors indicate that the entire excavation and research process will take several years before the dinosaur can be displayed to the public.
