The best preserved fossil of a dinosaur ever

a new study of the fossil additionally makes the debatable claim that the armored dinosaur had anti-predator camouflage.
about one hundred ten million years in the past in what’s now Alberta Canada a dinosaur such as a 2 800-pound pineapple ended up lifeless in a river.

today that dinosaur is one of the exceptional fossils of its kind ever found—and now it has a call: Borealopelta markmitchelli a plant-ingesting armored dinosaur called a nodosaur that lived during the Cretaceous duration. After death its carcass ended up lower back-first at the muddy ground of an ancient seaway where its the front half was preserved in three-D with extremely good detail.

Unearthed by using coincidence in 2011 and unveiled at Alberta’s Royal Tyrrell Museum in can also the fossil immediately supplied the arena an remarkable glimpse into the anatomy and life of armored dinosaurs.

“It’s a beautiful specimen ” says Victoria Arbour a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal Ontario Museum who s analyzing any other well-preserved armored dinosaur called Zuul crurivastator. “It’s super to have specimens like this one and Zuul that deliver us an concept of what those dinosaurs seemed like when they have been alive.”

similarly to pronouncing its call the primary scientific description of the nodosaur posted today in the journal modern-day Biology is revealing even greater of its secrets.

“We knew six years in the past that this became going to be unique ” says Don Henderson the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s curator of dinosaurs. “I don’t assume we realized how special it changed into.”

some a hundred and ten million years ago this armored plant-eater lumbered via what s now western Canada till a flooded river swept it into open sea. The dinosaur’s undersea burial preserved its armor in remarkable detail.
image by way of ROBERT CLARK countrywide GEOGRAPHIC
Armored dinosaurs’ trademark plates commonly fell off early in decay a destiny that didn’t befall this nodosaur. The remarkably preserved armor will deepen scientists’ know-how of what nodosaurs seemed like and the way they moved.


The nodosaur neck become blanketed with thorny armor plates extra reported than the armor at the relaxation of its frame.
a number of the nodosaur s terracotta-hued armor plates have retained sheaths that have been as soon as fabricated from keratin the equal fabric it really is in human fingernails.
The nodosaur seems to flash a glare—an effect produced by the fossil s exquisitely preserved eye socket.
The proper facet of the nodosaur s head nonetheless bears exclusive tile-like plates and a gray patina of fossilized pores and skin.

approximately a hundred and ten million years in the past in what’s now Alberta Canada a dinosaur such as a 2 800-pound pineapple ended up dead in a river.

These might be the remnants of the last meal it had

the eye grooves of the nodosaur are well preserved

on the nodosaur’s torso chocolate-brown ribs lie subsequent to tan osteoderms in opposition to a backdrop of gunmetal gray stone.

today that dinosaur is one of the high-quality fossils of its type ever discovered—and now it has a call: Borealopelta markmitchelli a plant-ingesting armored dinosaur referred to as a nodosaur that lived at some point of the Cretaceous length. After dying its carcass ended up lower back-first on the muddy ground of an ancient seaway where its the front 1/2 turned into preserved in three-D with first-rate detail.

Unearthed via accident in 2011 and unveiled at Alberta’s Royal Tyrrell Museum in may the fossil immediately provided the sector an unheard of glimpse into the anatomy and existence of armored dinosaurs.

“It’s a stunning specimen ” says Victoria Arbour a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal Ontario Museum who is analyzing some other properly-preserved armored dinosaur known as Zuul crurivastator. “It’s awesome to have specimens like this one and Zuul that deliver us an concept of what those dinosaurs looked like after they were alive.”


similarly to announcing its name the primary clinical description of the nodosaur posted nowadays within the magazine contemporary Biology is revealing even extra of its secrets.

“We knew six years ago that this become going to be special ” says Don Henderson the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s curator of dinosaurs. “I don’t suppose we found out how unique it become.”

LEAVING A MARK ON technological know-how

It’s been an extended avenue for Borealopelta. The creature’s subterranean isolation came to an cease on March 21 2011 whilst heavy-equipment operator Shawn Funk came across the fossil in an oil sands mine in northern Alberta operated with the aid of strength employer Suncor.

The fossil then traveled to the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s training lab wherein technician Mark Mitchell painstakingly chipped away the encircling rock—a feat that took him greater than 7 000 hours over almost six years. The cranium by myself took some 8 months to extricate.

“had been it no longer for his commitment [Borealopelta] likely would have never come to mild ” says Caleb Brown a postdoctoral researcher on the Royal Tyrrell Museum and the new look at’s lead author. “It’s an extreme quantity of effort. The preparators are regularly the unsung heroes.”

All that work has been matched with an amazing honor. the brand new examine confirms that the dinosaur represents a newfound genus and species and its formal call translates to “Mark Mitchell’s northern shield”—a nod to the fossil’s liberator its impeccably preserved armor and the location in which it were entombed.

“i was very excited [when I found out its name] says Mitchell. I put my arms up in the air and cheered.

means of cover

The look at’s maximum provocative claim involves the nodosaur’s potential colour which the study authors say is preserved in a blackish coating that covers a good deal of the dinosaur’s exterior.

within these films—thought to be remnants of the dinosaur’s skin—take a look at coauthor and college of Bristol paleobiologist Jakob Vinther says that he has found chemical tips of the pink-brown pigment pheomelanin.

Importantly Vinther and his colleagues didn’t discover symptoms of the pigment anywhere on the animal. After sampling alongside move-sections of the fossil Vinther says that its underbelly appears to have lacked pheomelanin which could have made that a part of the animal lighter in color.

while some animals have dark backs and mild bellies to help modify body temperature others have the patterning as a form of camouflage referred to as countershading. This -tone appearance flattens an animal’s look from afar and makes it harder for predators to spot.

Paleobiologist Jakob Vinther claims that the pink-brown pigment pheomelanin protected a great deal of Borealopelta besides for its stomach. if so this -tone colour can also have helped Borealopelta keep away from predators.

In current ecosystems land mammals with frame loads greater than approximately a ton such as rhinoceroses don’t want this form of visible defense method to keep predators at bay. by evaluation if the hefty and nicely-armored Borealopelta wished countershading its predators ought to were terrifyingly powerful.

“the short story is the Cretaceous is bloody scary ” says Vinther. “we have evidence for the reality that those theropods were ingesting Borealopelta [and other] large heavily armored herbivores taking them down and gulping them up.”

colourful CLAIMS?

For a few specialists although the new take a look at doesn’t gift the necessary evidence for countershading.

“The specimen is definitely superb. It’s an genuinely remarkable paleontological discovery ” says Alison Moyer a postdoctoral researcher at Drexel university who has studied fossilized tender tissues. however she says “the have a look at relating to the pigmentation and coloration—and consequently conclusions approximately predator-prey relationships—is form of flooded with issues.”

Vinther’s evidence obtained in assessments funded with the aid of the national Geographic Society is indirect. despite the nodosaur’s astounding preservation he should locate handiest strains of chemical compounds notion to be left behind when this specific pigment breaks down.

For Moyer the have a look at doesn’t absolutely address how the fossil’s chemistry may also have modified through the years or whether or not the blackish movie is in reality fossilized skin or the remains of a bacterial movie that grew over the decaying dinosaur. She also notes that the preserved skin doesn t enlarge to Borealopelta’s underbelly so she’s now not convinced that this place lacked the pigmentation.

What’s greater a couple of studies have documented the equal breakdown product identified inside the paper as a herbal element of marine sediments precisely in which Borealopelta fossilized.

“There are endless possibilities that aren’t taken into consideration that would be extra parsimonious than jumping to this countershading ” she says.

Paleontologist Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina country college a main professional on tender-tissue maintenance in dinosaurs concurs factor for point with Moyer. “The statistics do now not support their conclusions in my view ” she wrote in an e-mail.

Vinther counters that he didn’t discover any of the compound within the sediments surrounding the fossil—most effective in Borealopelta’s putative pores and skin and at high concentrations.

having said that says Lund university paleontologist Johan Lindgren it’s possible that the compounds associated with pheomelanin definitely come from other materials in or at the dinosaur that broke down during fossilization. “It highlights another time just how little we understand about how smooth tissues are preserved in animals ” he says.

The researchers reading Borealopelta emphasize that their look at represents the first words on the dinosaur’s colour however in reality not the ultimate.

Henderson adds that he looks forward to the years of healthy debate that the nodosaur is certain to provoke. The specimen is housed in a museum in which it is going to be to be had for different researchers to observe using all styles of techniques.

Borealopelta he says “is in a safe region for some thing honestly first rate—not hidden away in a person’s living room.”