Exceptional fossil preservation

Ordinarily, a dinosaur leaves only crushed bones behind after the passage of time. However, it occasionally happens that skin, scales, and armor plates survive almost intact across the ages. This is the case of an armored nodosaur from Canada, whose silhouette still remains in three dimensions.

Rare fossil discovery

Paleontologists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta described in August 2017 in Current Biology an herbivorous armored dinosaur whose fossilized skin still follows the contours of the living animal. On such an animal, flesh and soft tissues usually disappear before reaching our laboratories, leaving only a flattened skeleton. The armored nodosaur is an exception, because a very rapid underwater burial mineralized its tissues before their decomposition, preserving even the scales on its legs.

Chance discovery in a mine

A fossil discovered by chance in a mine in Alberta on 21 March 2011, Shawn Funk was working in the Millennium Mine, about thirty kilometers north of Fort McMurray. As he dug with his bulldozer, he discovered strange brown blocks marked with patterns he did not recognize. He had in fact stumbled upon the remains of a dinosaur about 110 million years old.

Dinosaur's size and features

The animal lived approximately 45 million years before the appearance of the tyrannosaur. Named Borealopelta markmitchelli, it reached 5.5 meters in length and weighed about 1.3 tons, as much as a small car. Two large spines extended from its shoulders to protect it from predators.

Fossil's detailed remains

The researchers found only the front part of its body, from the snout to the hips. However, its state of preservation is exceptional. The details are so precise that one can still observe the five fingers of its right front paw. Even the scales located under its foot remained visible.

Death scene preserved in rock

The scenario of its death is readable in the rock.