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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking
at a big greenish-black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state
museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete
dinosaur, skin and all."
"Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus
named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North
Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron.
It's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the
researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65-million-year-old rock
tomb.
"This is the closest many people will ever get to seeing what large
parts of a dinosaur actually looked like, in the flesh," said Phillip
Manning, a paleontologist at Manchester University in England, a member
of the international team researching Dakota.
"This is not the usual disjointed sentence or fragment of a word that
the fossil records offer up as evidence of past life. This is a full
chapter."
Animal tissue typically decomposes quickly after death. Researchers say
Dakota must have been buried rapidly and in just the right environment
for the skin to be preserved.
"The process of decay was overtaken by that of fossilization, preserving many of the soft-tissue structures," Manning said.
Tyler Lyson, a 25-year-old doctoral paleontology student at Yale University, discovered the dinosaur on his uncle's ranch in the Badlands in 1999. Weeks after he started to unearth the fossil in 2004, he knew he had found something special.
"Usually all we have is bones," Lyson said in a telephone interview.
"In this special case, we're not just after the bones; we're after the
whole carcass."
Researchers have used the world's largest CT scanner, operated by the
Boeing Co. in California and used to examine space shuttle parts, to
get a better look at what is encased in the rumpled mass of sandstone.
"This is the fourth dinosaur mummy that's ever been found in the world
of any significance," said Stephen Begin, a Michigan consultant on the
project. "It may turn out to be one of the best mummies, because of the
quality of the skin that we're finding and the extent of the skin
that's on the specimen."
Dakota was moved to the museum early last month and is currently
surrounded by precariously perched desk lamps and a machine to suck up
dust. State paleontologist John Hoganson, of the North Dakota
Geological Survey, said it will take a year, maybe more, to uncover it.
Amy Sakariassen, part of the team working on the project, was toiling
away with a brush whose bristles had been ground down to nubs.
"It really is wonderful to work on it," she said, as Begin used a sharp
instrument to pick away tiny bits of rock and unveil a scale. "Nobody's
seen that particular scale in 67 million years. It's quite thrilling."
Manning said his involvement has meant 18-hour days, seven-day weeks
and "more work than I could have ever imagined. But I would not change
a single second of the past few years."
Hoganson said the main part of the fossil is in two parts, weighing a total of nearly 5 tons.
"The skeleton itself is kind of curled up," he said. "The actual length
would be about 30 feet, from about the tip of its tail to the tip of
its nose."
The fossil has spawned both a children's book and an adult book, as
well as National Geographic television programs. The National
Geographic Society is funding much of the research.
"We are looking forward to seeing what emerges from the huge dinosaur
body block now housed in North Dakota," said John Francis, a society
vice president.
Many prehistoric fossils have been found in the western North Dakota
Badlands where terrain has been heavily eroded over time by weather.
Hoganson said other treasures likely are waiting to be unearthed.
"It's one of the few places in the world where you can actually see the
boundary line where the dinosaurs became extinct, the time boundary,"
he said. "In the Badlands, this layer is exposed in certain places."
Lyson, who found the fossil, eventually hopes to send it on a worldwide
tour and then bring it back to his hometown of Marmarth, where he is
creating a museum. For now, workers at the North Dakota Heritage Center
on the state Capitol grounds are getting part of it ready for display
this summer."
