"Dinosaur Mummy" Has Skin Like Birds' and Crocodiles'

National Geographic ^ | June 30, 2009 | Christine Dell'Amore

[SunkenCiv]

"This is the closest you're going to get to patting the animal," said excavation leader Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Britain's University of Manchester... Advanced imaging and chemical techniques revealed that the 66-million-year-old "mummified" duckbilled dinosaur had two layers of skin, as do modern vertebrates, including humans. Such a discovery was possible because the dinosaur's skin fossilized before bacteria had a chance to eat up the tissue. It is "absolutely amazing to be able to identify organic molecules from soft tissue that belonged to a beast that died over 66 million years ago," said Manning, whose work with the fossil was partially funded by the National Geographic Expeditions Council... Tyler Lyson, a teenager at the time, discovered Dakota, as the fossil was later dubbed, in 1999 on his family's North Dakota property... No one knows how the hippo-size animal died. But scientists do know that the body was probably buried rapidly.

[SunkenCiv]

hmm, could be a lyric there...

The pattern is hex / not regular hex / but hex hex hex hex / hex none the less

[Battle Axe]

God talks about the birds. He seems to love the birds of the air etc, fallen sparrow, etc.

He worked a long time on birds before he got them right.

[Gil4]

Do you

a. Really want to listen to an answer
b. Just want to make snide comments

Do you believe it is 66 million years old because

a. The article said so
b. Other (please explain)

[ApplegateRanch]

Thanks for the f/u on ‘Dakota’.

Thank the good Lord that they are extinct; I have enough problems fencing the antlered rats out of the garden.

[ApplegateRanch]

hmmm, 6 part harmony for a hextec?

[wildbill]

They ain’t heavy, they’re my druthers.

[SunkenCiv]

You're welcome, AGR.

LOL, wildbill and AGR.

Happy Independence Day, all!

[PghBaldy]

Dinosaur Mammy is what I thought it said.

[ApplegateRanch]

Dinosaur Mammy is what I thought it said.

Mammy,
Mammy,
The sun shines east, the sun
shines west,
I know where the sun shines best—
Mammy,
My little mammy,
My heartstrings are tangled around Alabammy.
I'm comin’,
Sorry that I made you wait.
I'm comin’,
Hope and trust that I'm not late, oh oh oh
Mammy,
My little Mammy,
I'd walk a million miles
For one of your smiles,
My Mammy! Oh oh oh... (SPOKEN) Mammy...
My little Mammy.

I'd pay a quarter to see that concert.

[colorado tanker]

But scientists do know that the body was probably buried rapidly.

Jar Jar was as unpopular back then as in modern times.