Edmontosaurus mummies with neck and trunk crest, spiky tail, and hooves (free pdf)
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Ben Creisler
Oct 23, 2025, 2:54:23 PMOct 23
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Ben Creisler
A new paper:
Paul C. Sereno, Evan T. Saitta, Daniel Vidal, Nathan Myhrvold, María Ciudad Real, Stephanie L. Baumgart, Lauren L. Bop, Tyler M. Keillor, Marcus Eriksen, and Kraig Derstler (2025)
Duck-billed dinosaur fleshy midline and hooves reveal terrestrial clay-template “mummification”
Science (advance online publication)
DOI: 10.1126/science.adw3536
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adw3536
Free pdf:
https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.adw3536
Two “mummies” of the end-Cretaceous, duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus annectens preserve a fleshy crest over the neck and trunk, an interdigitating spike row over the hips and tail, and hooves capping the toes of the hind feet. A battery of tests shows that all the fossilized integument (skin, spike, hoof) are preserved as a thin (< 1mm) clay template that formed on the surface of a buried carcass during decay prior to loss of all soft tissues and organic compounds. Unlike the underlying permineralized skeletal bone, the integument renderings of these “dinosaur mummies” are preserved as a thin external clay mask, a templating process documented previously only in anoxic marine settings.
Here's how dinosaur ‘mummies’ are helping scientists solve fossil mysteries
Free pdf:
Paul C. Sereno, Evan T. Saitta, Daniel Vidal, Nathan Myhrvold, María Ciudad Real, Stephanie L. Baumgart, Lauren L. Bop, Tyler M. Keillor, Marcus Eriksen, and Kraig Derstler (2025)
Duck-billed dinosaur fleshy midline and hooves reveal terrestrial clay-template “mummification”
Science (advance online publication)
DOI: 10.1126/science.adw3536
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adw3536
Free pdf:
https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.adw3536
Two “mummies” of the end-Cretaceous, duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus annectens preserve a fleshy crest over the neck and trunk, an interdigitating spike row over the hips and tail, and hooves capping the toes of the hind feet. A battery of tests shows that all the fossilized integument (skin, spike, hoof) are preserved as a thin (< 1mm) clay template that formed on the surface of a buried carcass during decay prior to loss of all soft tissues and organic compounds. Unlike the underlying permineralized skeletal bone, the integument renderings of these “dinosaur mummies” are preserved as a thin external clay mask, a templating process documented previously only in anoxic marine settings.
Here's how dinosaur ‘mummies’ are helping scientists solve fossil mysteries
Gregory Paul
Oct 23, 2025, 3:56:47 PMOct 23
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Very good this came out now, I can incorporate it into my upcoming ornithischian field guide:)
Looks like I will have to reduce the number of midline hornlet crests.
Not a big fan of the head crests in the edmontosaurs, looks kinda dorky.
GSPaul
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Thomas Richard Holtz
Oct 23, 2025, 4:07:28 PMOct 23
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In the supplementary material, Sereno et al. 2025 do note that there isn't definitive evidence for head crests in E. annectens. So it is still legitimate to leave it off for the Lancian species. (Heck, for that matter, with a sample size of 1 in E. regalis, it might conceivably be limited to adult males only, for instance.)
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
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Ben Creisler
Oct 27, 2025, 1:27:09 AM (11 days ago) Oct 27
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Edmontosaurus mummy discovery reveals new secrets of prehistoric life with Paul Sereno
FOX 32 Chicago (ChicagoLIVE)
(Many mentions of other new dinosaur discoveries to be revealed soon…)
18 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ah0UEfPOY
FOX 32 Chicago (ChicagoLIVE)
(Many mentions of other new dinosaur discoveries to be revealed soon…)
18 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ah0UEfPOY
====
Dinosaur Mummy Discovery: Hooved Edmontosaurus Revealed in Wyoming Badlands
University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division
2 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2OYcptFl9c
====
Duckbill Dinosaur Mummies! Brian Curtice
Fossil Crates
(Interesting discussion of earlier hadrosaur mummy finds…)
11 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejBCj8SgRcQ
===
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