Rare Mummified Dinosaur Unearthed: Contains Skin, and Maybe Organs, Muscle

[The Straight Story]

Rare Mummified Dinosaur Unearthed: Contains Skin, and Maybe Organs, Muscle
By Evan Ratliff Email 12.03.07 | 12:00 AM
Scientists have uncovered the mummy of a 67-million-year-old plant-eating hadrosaur, a duck-billed herbivore common to North America.
Image: National Geographic Channel

Scientists on Monday announced the discovery of what appears to be the world's most intact dinosaur mummy: a 67-million-year-old plant-eater that contains fossilized bones and skin tissue, and possibly muscle and organs.

Preserved by a natural fluke of time and chemistry, the four-ton mummified hadrosaur, a duck-billed herbivore common to North America, could reshape the understanding of dinosaurs and their habitat, its finders say.

"There is no doubt about it that this dinosaur is a very, very significant find," said Tyler Lyson, a graduate student in geology at Yale University who discovered the dinosaur in North Dakota.

"To say we are excited would be an understatement," said Phil Manning, a paleontologist at England's University of Manchester who is leading the examination. "When I first saw it in the field, (I thought) 'Shiiiit, that's a really well preserved dinosaur.' It has the potential to be a top-10 dinosaur, globally."


http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/12/dino_mummy

[zabet]

1. I heard that

DNA testing showed it was
Fred Thompson's long lost
twin brother.

[Richard Steele]

2. I predict that detailed spectrographic analysis of the tissues will prove they tasted like chicken.

[MissB]

3. Lucky kid.

Great find.

[XemaSab]

4. Not often you read science reports that have the word

"Shiiiit." :D

[Junkdrawer]

5. I hear Dick Cheney is incensed that they desecrated his family's burial grounds...

That's no way to treat Daddy...

[cgibbon70]

6. No more than 6000 years old.....tops

This guy was on the Ark right next to the hippos.

[calimary]

12. Welcome to DU! That's what I thought, too!

Cheers!

[cgibbon70]

16. Thanks Calimary!

It's just a matter of time before Ken Hovind had a display of this dinosaur on the Ark at his creationist museum.

[Canuckistanian]

7. How can something be mummified AND fossilized?

Mummification is simple dehydration. Fossilization is the replacement of bone with minerals, usually resulting in the destruction of soft tissue.

Which is it?

[Richard Steele]

8. First one, then the other.

It mummified, then fossilized, which leaves us with rare fossils
of the soft tissues.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. Sounds like it was completely mineralized.

Just that it was mummified first, so that many of the soft tissues ended up getting mineralized instead of just the bones.

[Disturbed]

11. Does Yale U. own this Dino?

I have heard that Dinos are worth a lot of money.

[Canuckistanian]

23. Ah, I see

Must have been an unusual set of circumstances for that to happen.

[malaise]

10. How can they find a a 67-million-year-old plant-eater

when the creationists have told me the earth is 6,000 years old?
Clearly this hadrosaur will not be heading for the creationists' museum.

[DS1]

13. No you can't has a cheezburger, come back in 67 million years

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

14. Did it have a well-preserved saddle and bridle on it?

[Ian David]

15. No, but it did have a "W '04" bumper sticker. n/t

[cgibbon70]

17. Noah's own

The saddle is embosed with his name

[devilgrrl]

18. I bet those remains were planted by Satan himself.

nt

[NoFederales]

19. Ahh, modern science--a top ten dinosaur! nt

NoFederales

[JBoy]

20. Maybe it's a dinosaur that Jesus got stuck in the mud one day

I don't recall the Bible mentioning that Jesus had AAA, so it's possible it got stuck and he couldn't get it out. In which case the dinosaur would be extra-valuable.

[applegrove]

21. Cool

[Arugula Latte]

22. I just love this stuff.

Just took the kids to see "Sea Monsters" at our Omnimax Theater. It's about the amazing prehistoric critters that lived in the oceans tens of millions of years ago.

The vast sweep of time is too much for my primate brain to grasp ...