Discovered a 75-million-year-old dinosaur carcass in the UK, with scales, skin and organs still intact

Some parts of this dinosaur still have scales exposed from the ground, including a foot and tail covered with fossils. This mummy is believed to be a young Hadrosaur, which died out between 75 million and 77 million years ago, about 10 million years before the dinosaurs became extinct. Scientists began to excavate and remove the entire mummy from the hill.

Brian Pickles, a paleontologist and professor of ecology at the University of Reading, says the dinosaur mummy is so well preserved that you can see the scales, some tendons and skin on the whole animal intact. whole. That means some other internal organs can also be well preserved.

Follow Pickles, if the remains of the unexcavated interior are still intact, this is one of the best-preserved dinosaur fossils ever discovered. This will give scientists a comprehensive picture of what the dinosaur looked like before its death about millions of years ago.

Fortunately, if the mummy’s stomach was even better preserved, this would allow scientists to determine Hadrosaur’s last meal before his death.

A member of the archeology team headed by Picklespaleontologist Caleb Brown of Canada’s Royal Tyrrell Museum and University of New England scientists in Australia first discovered the fossil protruding from a cliff while on an exploration trip for the United States. an international field school last year at Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. Pickles said:

“It’s hard to imagine. This animal died out 76 million years ago. It was perfectly preserved and began to show as the cliffs eroded away. This dinosaur may have died and was later covered by sand and silt in the river, or died when it was swept over by a flood.”

Hadrosaur fossils are common in North America, but finding juveniles is rare.

“Dinosaur species evolved quite quickly, so finding young ones in fossils is important because it can tell us a lot about how their lives evolved,” said Pickles. speak.

According to archaeologists, this dinosaur was about 4 meters long, the length of a car. While the adult Hadrosaur was 9.7 meters long.

Pickles said the team expects to carve a skeleton containing a block from the hill by the end of next summer.

It will then be transported to a laboratory, where a team will use better tools to excavate the animal before it goes on display at the Royal Tyrrell dinosaur museum.