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Edmontosaurus - An Educational Reason to Visit North Dakota

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GG Staff | 03/18/2008 - 13:56 | Add new comment

Rare mummified dinosaur looks good for his age

Considering a road trip to the North Dakota Badlands this year? You might want to hold off until Dakota, a Edmontosaurus, is freed from his 65 million year old tomb. Because when he is, you're going to want to see him.

Edmontosaurus DiscoveryEdmontosaurus DiscoveryThe duck-billed dinosaur is a rare find, encased in layers of greenish black rock that's as hard as iron. Right now he's been tenderly brushed and caressed in the basement of North Dakota's State Museum as researchers attempt to free him, skin and all, from the rock.

There are only a handful of mummified dinosaurs in the whole world, and Dakota is unique for still having his skin. After death, skin tissue decays quickly, so researchers believe Dakota must have been buried immediately after death for the skin to be still intact.

Geologists believe the North Dakota Badlands have a lot more secrets hiding just below the surface. Over time the area has been badly eroded by weather and those treasures are slowly moving toward discovery.

"Usually all we have is bones," said Tyler Lyson, a 25-year-old doctoral paleontology student at Yale University, in a telephone interview with AP News. "In this special case, we're not just after the bones; we're after the whole carcass."

The North Dakota Geological Survey is responsible for Dakota and says it could take as long as a year to remove all the tiny bits of rock and stone attached to the dinosaur. Lyson, who discovered Dakota, hopes to send the fossil on a worldwide tour and eventually bring it back to his hometown of Marmarth.

For now, the North Dakota Heritage Center on the State Capitol Grounds is getting ready to display parts of the fossil this summer.

Are you heading to North Dakota's Badlands this summer? Got plans to take in Dakota in all his glory?

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