Posted on 08/04/2017 8:02:35 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The fossilized Borealopelta markmitchelli, nodosaur for short, is so well preserved evidence of the animal’s last meal remains in its gut.
On March 21, 2011, mining machine operator Shawn Funk at the Suncor Millennium Mine in Alberta, Canada, spotted some unusual rock formations that he suspected could contain fossils. Since a bunch of plesiosaur and ichthyosaur remains had been previously excavated from the region, Donald Henderson, who is the curator of dinosaurs at Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Canada, and a crew were sent to the mine to investigate.
Henderson and his colleagues at first were baffled by the fossils, which looked nothing like the marine reptile remains that had been unearthed in the Alberta area. The chunk of rock encasing the fossils was transported to the museum, where technician Mark Mitchell spent more than 7,000 hours slowly and gently removing material away from the specimen. When paleontologist Caleb Marshall Brown of the museum first saw the preserved beast in full, his jaw dropped. There, in vivid 3D, was a nodosaur, which is a type of hefty armored dinosaur.
“This specimen is one of the best-preserved dinosaur specimens ever found,” Brown said. “What sets this nodosaur apart from other exceptionally preserved dinosaur specimens, is the unique combination of both abundant skin preservation and retention of the original three-dimensional form of the body.”
“This unique combination means that, with the exception of the color, the animal looks the same today as it did when it was alive,” he added. “It is almost as if the animal went to sleep and turned to stone — a fossil masterpiece.”
Photo and video at link.
Well if it was “camo’d” up, how did they see it? Just sayin’.
They do look similar.
I have to wonder, how does that happen? Did the poor thing lie down for a nap and suddenly get covered in a flow of limestone mud?
Be sure to watch the video.
Very interesting discovery, and what they’ve been able to learn about its coloration.
Wow, not only is the find amazing, but the fact that a mining machine operator was knowledgeable enough to spot them, stop his machine, call in the pros, and the company was ok with stopping the operation in that location for a time. Kudos to all involved!
... for later...
Thanks for posting.
The club on the tail reminds of the Larsen cartoon, where a caveman is teaching other cavemen of a dinosaur’s parts.
He points to the spiky tail and says “And this is the Thagomiser, after the late Thag, who discovered it.”
This fossil was created in an instant, similar perhaps to at least one instance recalled in the Bible, Lot’s wife. Check out http://www.ancientdestructions.com/the-destructions-blog/ there’s a “new” theory that explains widely obvious “instant petrification” with reference to electrical strikes of a magnitude we have not seen in our scientific lifetimes, associated perhaps with Velikovsy mega-catastrophism during human times. See also Electric Universe videos, you’d be fascinated with how much about physics and the universe this finally explains.
Looks like a giant horny toad!
Interesting. Any articles on this?
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