Dinosaur reconstructed from its fossilized skin

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

A spectacular dinosaur unearthed in the badlands of North Dakota has been reconstructed from its fossilized skin.

Its tail, feet and right forelimb were encased in scales - which had bite marks from meat eating theropods.

The remains provide the most accurate depiction to date of what the legendary prehistoric beasts really looked like.

They belonged to a duckbilled plant eater called Edmontosaurus. It reached about 40 feet in length and weighed four tons.

"Clusters of injuries are currently identified in three different locations - the upper and forearm and the soft tissues around the right elbow," said lead author Dr. Stephanie Drumheller, of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

It may have been attacked by a juvenile T Rex - and then consumed by other carnivorous dinosaurs.

Most dinosaurs are known only from their bones, which are seldom found joined together as they would be in real life.

A three-dimensional 'skin envelope' is complete and intact around large parts of the body.

The creature, nicknamed Dakota, lived about 67 million years ago - and is one of the most important paleontology discoveries in recent years.

It is one of only a few mummified dinosaurs in existence - and has the most and best-preserved skin along with ligaments, tendons and some internal organs.

They were found in 1999 by high school student Tyler Lyson on his uncle's ranch near Marmarth.

It shows dinosaur 'mummies' might not be as unusual as we think - thanks to a process of "desiccation and deflation".

The bite marks are the first examples of unhealed damage on dinosaur skin. The beast was not protected from scavengers - yet it became a mummy nonetheless.

Modern animal carcasses are known to be often emptied out as scavengers and decomposers target internal tissues - leaving behind skin and bone.

The US team say damage to this dinosaur would have exposed its insides and allowed a similar process to occur - after which the skin and bones became slowly desiccated and buried.

There are likely numerous pathways by which a dinosaur mummy might develop- helping collectors interpret such informative fossils.

Co-author Clint Boyd, senior paleontologist at the North Dakota Geological Survey, said: "Not only has Dakota taught us that durable soft tissues like skin can be preserved on partially scavenged carcasses, but these soft tissues can also provide a unique source of information about the other animals that interacted with a carcass after death."

The study was published in the journal PLOS One.