Well-Preserved Hadrosaur Skin Unlocked, Suggesting New Explanation for How Dinosaurs Could Be Mummified

Research of a hadrosaur called Dakota discovered a new explanation for the manner that dinosaurs could be mummified using their skin preserved through the eons.

Dakota, also called "dino mummy," has fascinated paleontologists and the public since the fossil part was the first to be untombed in North Dakota "with parts of its skin preserved," The New York Times reported.

Researchers are not done yet in terms of discoveries about Dakota, a duck-billed dinosaur. Recently, they have been able to unlock a well-preserved foot, a forelimb, and a bigger part of its tail from the stone that encases the fossil.

While more work requires to be carried out to completely expose the 66- to 67-million-year-old mummy, such parts of its anatomy alone are already considered a challenge to some paleontological theories.

Mummified Dinosaurs

A study published in the PLOS ONE journal focuses on the recently exposed parts of the body and offers a new understanding of how mummies, like Dakota, might have survived.

This new study even suggests that there may be far more mummified skin out there to discover in the fossil record and investigate compared to previously believed if only paleontologists are looking in the right places.

Prior to this study, mummified dinosaurs were said to form in one of two ways-either, they were either buried quickly after death or they stayed intact in an arid landscape long enough for the preservation of the carcass.

Nonetheless, further research into the sediments around the fossil suggests that Dakota lived not just in a dry, arid place but in a humid, wet environment. The dinosaur's body was found laying close to a water source in its final moments.

Bite Marks Identified

Bite marks identified recently on its skin and bone also specified remarkable scavenging on this animal from various carrion feeders, including ancestors of modern crocodiles and probably, carnivorous dinosaurs such as young T. rex on Dakotaraptors.

If this dinosaur died close to the water and was scavenged by predators, the question of why its soft skin did not rot away now arises.

As specified in a related Mail Online report, a new answer to the question began with paleontologist Stephanie Drumheller, an expert in bite marks at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

CT scans revealed the preserved skin was deflated, instead of being compressed by sedimentary stone pressed down on it.

Soft Tissue Preservation

Vertebrate paleontologist Fion Waisum Ma from the Smithsonian National Museum of National History, who was not part of the study, explained that some scavenging might favor the skin's mummification.

She also said that this study is comprehensive, giving them "a new perspective on how soft tissue preservation" may have occurred in dinosaurs and more commonly in land vertebrates.

Anecdotally, the research team heard several stories from colleagues searching for more patches of fossilized skin in the field compared to what was expected, specifically when excavating hadrosaurs.

Related information about mummified dinosaurs is shown on InformOverload's YouTube video below:

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