A high school student found the fossilized remains of a 65-million-year-old dinosaur, but there’s a twist: the fossils aren’t just bones, but also soft tissue such as muscles. Scientists say they can learn more from this discovery than ever before.
Digital Journal — Call it one of the greatest fossil finds of the past 100 years: In an ancient river flood plain, a high school student discovered the mummified remains of an extremely rare dinosaur nine years ago, which is apparently the most complete and best-preserved of the dinosaurs unearthed since early in the last century, scientists said.
The 25-foot-long hadrosaur is yielding new information about the biology of this unique duck-billed dinosaur, scientists announced today: the skin around the tail offers a three-dimensional look at this body part; the skin scales near the creature’s elbow varies in size, indicating a change of skin colour or texture; and a fleshy pad on its palm reveals that this hardosaur did not permanently walk on all fours.
Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in England leading the inquiry, told the Washington Post:
He looks like a blow-up dinosaur in some parts. When you actually look at the detail of the skin, the scales themselves are three dimensional. . . . The arm is breathtaking. It’s a three-dimensional arm, you can shake the dinosaur by the hand. It just defies logic that such a remarkable specimen could preserve.
Researchers have been able to reconstruct the dinosaur’s muscle cavity, offering a glimpse into its body mechanics. For instance, researchers estimate the creature could run as quickly as 28 mph, faster than a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Some scientists are skeptical about the dinosaur discovery’s impact on the greater community. While researchers have several papers under peer review, none have yet been published in scientific journals. One expert cautions that getting excited over the soft tissue remains may be unwarranted.
Tyler Lyson, who discovered the remains, is now a graduate student in paleontology at Yale University, and recently said:
We don’t have many conclusions in there because that wasn’t really the point of it. I totally agree that before we go out and say, ‘Oh look, this is the greatest dinosaur ever, and it has showed us this and showed us that,’ we have to prove it to the scientific community. We’re still waiting on a lot of that.
