A recent discovery has scientists pretty excited and impressed! A dinosaur mummy was uncovered with guts and skin intact. This is not an everyday occurrence that scientists are able to find a fully intact dinosaur.
We’re sure you’ve seen the skeletons, bones, and random fossils that archeologists have found over the years, but never have we seen a dinosaur mummy so well preserved that the dinosaur has skin and guts. This is an amazing discovery and we can’t wait to hear more about this dinosaur!
For now, we’re going to share what we know about this mummy so that you can be just as in awe over this find as we are!
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Some miners in Canada happened upon this dinosaur mummy. The fossilized nodosaur is well over 100 million years old, yet here it is looking as if it just died yesterday. Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada unveiled the find and was impressed that the patterns of the nodosaur were still visible on the skin.
Since this nodosaur was so well-preserved, the scientists refuse to call it a fossil, it’s more like a mummy preservation of a dinosaur. As the scientists checked out the nodosaur mummy they found that most of the skin, armor, and guts were intact.
In the past, you had to use a little imagination to envision what the nodosaur looked like. We’ve only found a fossil version of this dinosaur, so it’s really amazing to actually see the dinosaur in its true form with this mummy!
This enormous dinosaur called the nodosaur is a recently discovered dinosaur that is estimated to weigh about 3,000 pounds. The nodosaur is an herbivore that’s protected by a spiky armored outer skin that’s clearly visible in the mummified version of this nodosaur.
This dinosaur mummy still weighs 2,500 pounds! This gives you an idea of just how well-preserved the nodosaur mummy is.
No one is quite sure how this nodosaur was able to become mummified, but they have some educated guesses. It’s possible this dinosaur was carried out to the ocean by a river flooding and sank to the ocean floor. After millions of years, the minerals in the ocean did their job at keeping this hefty dinosaur mummy intact.
Since the nodosaur can’t talk, it’s up to the scientists to examine this mummy and provide us with more information as they find it. This 18-foot long mummy is named Borealopelta markmitchelli, which is in honor of the technician for the museum that spent over 7,000 hours unearthing this mummy from the rocky grave it was found in.