Post by thesporerex on Dec 31, 2013 18:07:47 GMT
Baby dinosaur skeleton found intact in Alberta
There's nothing else like it that I know of," said Don Brinkman from the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
It’s believed the creature, measuring 1.5-metres long, was about three years old. They determined it was a Chasmosaurus belli, which was common in the area. Because it had no bite marks or trace of injury, researchers think it wandered into a stream, drowned and was covered in sediment where it lay undisturbed for about 70 million years.
Brinkman said usually small bones get washed away and scattered, but this discovery was preserved because it was buried right at the time of death before any of the soft tissue had rotted away.
"It's as close as you can get to a dinosaur mummy," he said.
A hammer helps put the size of the partially-uncovered fossil into perspective. (Courtesy of Philip J. Currie, Robert Holmes, Michael Ryan Clive Coy, Eva B. Koppelhus)
It’s believed the creature, measuring 1.5-metres long, was about three years old. They determined it was a Chasmosaurus belli, which was common in the area. Because it had no bite marks or trace of injury, researchers think it wandered into a stream, drowned and was covered in sediment where it lay undisturbed for about 70 million years.
Brinkman said usually small bones get washed away and scattered, but this discovery was preserved because it was buried right at the time of death before any of the soft tissue had rotted away.
"It's as close as you can get to a dinosaur mummy," he said.
A hammer helps put the size of the partially-uncovered fossil into perspective. (Courtesy of Philip J. Currie, Robert Holmes, Michael Ryan Clive Coy, Eva B. Koppelhus)
"Philip Currie, a paleobiologist at the University of Alberta, first found what he thought was an exposed portion of turtle shell on a hillside in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
After digging a bit, he discovered it was the “frill” or decorative bone at the back of the head of the ceratopsids.
The skeleton is almost complete and intact, so much so that even the skin with its tiny rosette pattern left an impression in the rock, says Currie. However, sometime in the past, a sinkhole opened underneath the fossil and the forelimbs were lost.
The find will help paleontologists determine how these plant-eaters grew and the skeleton will also help identify and place numbers of individual fossilized bones recovered over the years."
Since you people have already heard quite a lot about this discovery in one previous thread made by raptorx863 in his SVP discoveries thread I am just gonna quote that for some more information:
Article: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/baby-dinosaur-skeleton-found-intact-in-alberta-1.2442768
After digging a bit, he discovered it was the “frill” or decorative bone at the back of the head of the ceratopsids.
The skeleton is almost complete and intact, so much so that even the skin with its tiny rosette pattern left an impression in the rock, says Currie. However, sometime in the past, a sinkhole opened underneath the fossil and the forelimbs were lost.
The find will help paleontologists determine how these plant-eaters grew and the skeleton will also help identify and place numbers of individual fossilized bones recovered over the years."
Since you people have already heard quite a lot about this discovery in one previous thread made by raptorx863 in his SVP discoveries thread I am just gonna quote that for some more information:
A new specimen of a baby Chasmosaurus articulated and perfectly preserved complete with skin impressions. It is the youngest ceratopsian currently known from North America
Article: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/baby-dinosaur-skeleton-found-intact-in-alberta-1.2442768