About 66 million years ago, a group of plant-eating dinosaurs faced a tough drought just before heavy rains fell. They left behind incredibly well-preserved ‘mummies’ that showed details like skin and spikes. These mummies belonged to a species called Edmontosaurus annectens, duck-billed dinosaurs that roamed what’s now North America.
Paleontologists from the University of Chicago have been studying several of these mummies from a unique area in Wyoming, known as the ‘mummy zone,’ which has excellent preservation conditions. Two recent discoveries reveal fascinating features. The first is a young dinosaur, about two years old, with its full fleshy profile intact, including a crest down its neck. The second is an older specimen, thought to be five to eight years old, still displaying spikes along its back.
The big surprise? The toes of the older dinosaur were capped with hooves. This is significant as it’s one of the rarest finds in dinosaurs and among the oldest hoofed animals known. Research suggests that hooves likely evolved even earlier in the Jurassic period among armored dinosaurs.
To understand how these mummies formed, the team used advanced scanning techniques and found that no organic material remained. Instead, the external features were preserved by a thin layer of clay formed by a microbial biofilm as the dinosaurs decayed. The mummies’ skin shows they probably sat in the sun for a bit after death. A drought is linked to the deaths of at least some of these dinosaurs.
But here’s the irony: shortly after they died, a flood buried the mummies under sediment of mud and debris. The researchers believe this burial happened within days, making the transition from life to fossil even more dramatic.
Most of our dinosaur knowledge comes from fossilized bones, but soft tissues provide a clearer picture of their lives. These mummies offer a glimpse into the past that bones alone can’t show. This study highlights the incredible details preserved in time, bringing us closer to understanding these ancient creatures.
The findings were published in the journal Science, contributing to our ongoing fascination with dinosaurs and their complex history.
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