Duckbill sensations

Paleontologists report their discoveries in children's books

New discoveries by British and American paleontologists may cause a lot of trouble for workers in natural science museums. It is possible that the skeletons of some dinosaurs, often the highlight of the exhibition, will have to be adjusted, and it is certainly worth changing the images of the duck-billed hadrosaur everywhere. Studying the fossil remains of this herbivorous lizard using computed tomography has already allowed experts to conclude that it was stronger, larger and faster than previously thought, reports the Associated Press. In addition, there is a high probability that the hadrosaur had the ability to change skin color, like a chameleon.

All these discoveries were made during a multi-year study of the fossilized remains of a hadrosaur found in 1999 in North Dakota. This lizard, which lived approximately 67 million years ago, is unique in that paleontologists were able to study not fossilized bones, but the fossilized mummy, including large areas of its intact skin. The "mummy" was so well preserved that scientists were able to measure the muscle mass of the Dakota hadrosaur and concluded that its posterior musculature was much more developed than previously thought. This herbivore could reach speeds of up to 45 km per hour, which, of course, gave a certain advantage over the most famous predator of that time, the tyrannosaurus, reports Lenta.ru with reference to National Geographic.

The skin of the hadrosaur, even in fossilized form, is no less interesting. The hopes of finding non-mineralized areas of soft tissue on the skeleton and obtaining a DNA sample are not so great - after all, this lizard lived too long ago, and the condition of the mummy cannot be compared with the remains of the same mammoths. However, University of Manchester paleontologist Philip Manning claims that even one glance at the skin is enough to make a specialist take his breath away - its structure is so clearly visible. While studying fossilized skin, the scientist noticed a certain ratio of large and small scales of the lizard. He claims that something similar is observed in some modern reptiles, which have the property of changing their color depending on the environment. It is likely, paleontologists believe, that this property, along with the ability to move quickly on the hind limbs, helped hadrosaurs survive surrounded by ferocious predators.

Computed tomography of the hadrosaur mummy also raised the question of whether the lizard skeletons exhibited in museums were assembled correctly. Sometimes these compositions have more artistic than scientific value; it is not often possible to find an entire part of a dinosaur, and even a perfectly preserved one. Therefore, sometimes some fragments are simply reproduced - depending on generally accepted ideas about what a particular lizard could have looked like. Experts who studied Dakota's mummy noticed that the hadrosaur's vertebrae are not directly adjacent to one another - there is a gap of about a centimeter between each of them. According to paleontologists, this may indicate that this duck-billed lizard was longer and more flexible than previously thought. And it is possible that the spine of other dinosaurs was structured similarly.

The study of the mummy, which involves paleontologists from several universities in the US and UK, is far from complete. And many specialists participating in the work still refuse to comment on the sensational statements of their colleagues. Those who decided to publish their discoveries clearly made the right decision in commercial terms. As AP notes, even the available material was enough not only for several scientific papers, but also for a popular television movie and even a children's book. They are scheduled to be released this week.

Fedor SEREBRYANSKY