Duck-billed dinosaur fleshy midline and hooves reveal terrestrial clay-template “mummification” (VIDEO)
Caption
Some 66 million years ago, just before the great extinction, the duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus annectens walks in the soft mud of a coastline passing the sun-dried a carcass of another individual and leaving a set of footprints — before spotting its nemesis, the great predator Tyrannosaurus rex, and turning to run. Floodwaters would bury carcasses of the duckbill preserving its fleshy surface detail as a clay mask over skeletons of its fossilized bones in a small area located today in the badlands of east-central Wyoming. (artwork by Dani Navarro; storyboard by Jonathan Metzker; animation by Davide la Torre)
Credit
Artwork by Dani Navarro; storyboard by Jonathan Metzker; animation by Davide la Torre
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Reuse only with permission by request to grace.niewijk@uchicagomedicine.org
License
Original content