Wow I would have believed this was fake because of how well preserved it looks. Awesome!This is another one from 2011, Canada
Mummified then fossilized too.
Wow I would have believed this was fake because of how well preserved it looks. Awesome!This is another one from 2011, Canada
Mummified then fossilized too.
The term "mummified" when applied to fossils just means soft tissue has been extensively preserved, or that the animal was mummified before it was fossilized. This mummified hadrosaur foot is absolutely a fossil. It's a rock. "Mummified" isn't really being used scientifically here, more of a slang term.
Well Alaska wasn't frozen back then.Wow, This is really cool. I wouldn't be surprised if one day we find a full one intact somewhere under the snows in Alaska.
Some more has been posted from the Twitter account. More images, some diagrams, and an explanation of what exactly is being shown in this image. Exciting! I've been waiting for more stuff to come out of Dakota for a while.
Dakota is a very large specimen, and prep takes a very long time. Remember that these fossils are attached to the matrix, and especially with very detailed specimens, prep work often includes painstaking removal of overlaying rock layer by layer with tiny dremels and dust blasters. Here's and example of what that looks like on a much smaller fish fossil: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3m_0E9J85-/?igshid=18jzf2qpjwdu0
Yes I'm aware of that but some of the posters in this thread don't seem to be, or are extremely committed to the part
I don't think that I have ever seen, read, or heard anyone say that all dinosaurs had feathers. As you said it's always been the smaller bipedal dinos, but I haven't seen a single source ever claim otherwise. I have seen people speculate if like, T-Rex had down when young or some feathering.Not anti feather in general . Just against the lie that any dinosaur except those little chicken looking ones had feathers!
Yes exactly, again I have never once seen anyone claim all dinosaurs had feathers. Are there people who think that like, Stegosaurus had feathers? Triceratops? Wtf.To be fair, not all dinosaurs had feathers, at least it was never stated to be.
Dakota was originally found in 1999, but 2007 is really when the work started being shown on it. It's interesting this is part of that original fossil, sounds like there was a lot more of the animal present that it seemed when I read about it earlier.
Not sure if serious? If so read the thread.
Well today I learned there was something called Bone Wars!Dakota is a very large specimen, and prep takes a very long time. Remember that these fossils are attached to the matrix, and especially with very detailed specimens, prep work often includes painstaking removal of overlaying rock layer by layer with tiny dremels and dust blasters. Here's and example of what that looks like on a much smaller fish fossil: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3m_0E9J85-/?igshid=18jzf2qpjwdu0
Now imagine doing that on something the size of a small car, which is also preserved in 3d and not simply flattened against a slab.
After that, you then have to examine and describe the specimen in extremely painstaking detail, which also usually takes months or years of work, since you literally describe every bump, scratch, protuberance, and detail on the bone. And adding soft tissue preservation to the mix increases that time even more.
There's also the fact that paleontology programs often just aren't well funded. There are specimens still sitting in drawers from the *Bone Wars* that have never been scientifically described, simply because there's not enough money or manpower to do it.
Thats a crazy amount of work if it took over 20 years to prep these fossilss for analysis and display
I do not want thisFor the next weird dino discovery, I'm crossing my fingers for proof that carnotaurus's arms were nonexistent/covered in flesh!
Jesus Christ guys, just because one leg doesn't have feathers doesn't mean all dinosaurs don't have feathers. Not all birds have feathers you know!
There also seems to be a bit of confusion about the hoof. A hoof is just a specialized toenail. Hooves evolved more than once in mammals and there's no reason to find their presence remarkable in a dinosaur. I'm not entirely convinced this fossil shows a hoof though, since there's not an indication of one in the toe bones. At least, not something that would encompass the entire foot. This could be something else.
LA Beast is already making some calls
Yes, any preserved soft tissue (still a fossil folks, no actual flesh here), especially this much is a big deal. I'm thinking skin mitten myself, which is already presumed in many hadrosaur reconstructions though this fossil looks more like a toeless sauropod mitten than what is often assumed for hadrosaurs. Still, it's too hard to say much from this picture and I hope the paleontology team isn't far off from publishing.To feather/anti feather people :
This isn't the sort of dinosaur where we would really expect to see feathers.
And even if it were, the group is really diverse in terms of integument. Some animals might have had feathers at certain times, but lost them in others. Some were basically big birds with arms and full tails, and others seem to have just had naked, scaly, or scale e-like skin, or skin covered in osteoderms.
So just get used to the idea that dinosaurs didn't look the way you think they did, and as we get better information, the way they are depicted is going to change.
It seems to be analogous to a good. Especially since a few of the digits are encased in the skin-mitten and not really independently mobile.
It's a remarkable specimen and a big deal.
Yes, any preserved soft tissue (still a fossil folks, no actual flesh here), especially this much is a big deal. I'm thinking skin mitten myself, which is already presumed in many hadrosaur reconstructions though this fossil looks more like a toeless sauropod mitten than what is often assumed for hadrosaurs. Still, it's too hard to say much from this picture and I hope the paleontology team isn't far off from publishing.
If you've ever had alligator or crocodile, it's basically the same texture as chicken or turkey. So using phylogenetic bracketing, we could assume something like that. The actual taste would probably be more like beef since the animal had an herbivorous diet.
Honestly I'd want him to do it.
That's what it reads like. Such a crazy foot!Based on my best interpretation of the photos and their diagram, I drew this quick comparison for how hadrosaur front feet were originally believed to look compared to this.
I could be really off, but that's what I see. We've known that hadrosaur front feet formed some sort of fleshy pad for a while but the presence of visible claws on the old foot was not necessarily known (obviously) but I just included them for easier comparison. Just goes to show how much we still don't know about dinosaurs.
Based on my best interpretation of the photos and their diagram, I drew this quick comparison for how hadrosaur front feet were originally believed to look compared to this.
I could be really off, but that's what I see. We've known that hadrosaur front feet formed some sort of fleshy pad for a while but the presence of visible claws on the old foot was not necessarily known (obviously) but I just included them for easier comparison. Just goes to show how much we still don't know about dinosaurs.
Dakota is a very large specimen, and prep takes a very long time. Remember that these fossils are attached to the matrix, and especially with very detailed specimens, prep work often includes painstaking removal of overlaying rock layer by layer with tiny dremels and dust blasters. Here's and example of what that looks like on a much smaller fish fossil: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3m_0E9J85-/?igshid=18jzf2qpjwdu0
Now imagine doing that on something the size of a small car, which is also preserved in 3d and not simply flattened against a slab.
After that, you then have to examine and describe the specimen in extremely painstaking detail, which also usually takes months or years of work, since you literally describe every bump, scratch, protuberance, and detail on the bone. And adding soft tissue preservation to the mix increases that time even more.
There's also the fact that paleontology programs often just aren't well funded. There are specimens still sitting in drawers from the *Bone Wars* that have never been scientifically described, simply because there's not enough money or manpower to do it.
To feather/anti feather people :
This isn't the sort of dinosaur where we would really expect to see feathers.
And even if it were, the group is really diverse in terms of integument. Some animals might have had feathers at certain times, but lost them in others. Some were basically big birds with arms and full tails, and others seem to have just had naked, scaly, or scale e-like skin, or skin covered in osteoderms.
So just get used to the idea that dinosaurs didn't look the way you think they did, and as we get better information, the way they are depicted is going to change.
This is another one from 2011, Canada
Mummified then fossilized too.
I think the consensus at this point is that only the Raptors had significant feather coverage, with perhaps some sparse feather coverage on larger theropods.
The "every dinosaur had feathers" conclusion was a bit overzelous.
The "every dinosaur had feathers" conclusion was a bit overzelous.
The "Trachodon" Mummy was found with its fingers partially covered in skin, but it wasn't preserved well enough to show any real anatomy. It was originally assumed it was webbing because hadrosaurs were assumed to be primarily aquatic creatures at the time, but it was later determined it was likely a pad of sorts when the aquatic theory was nixed. Beyond that it was guesswork.This seems to be right.
I'm not super familiar with Hadrosaur feet - are their any species where the old depiction was definite, or as it always been assumed?
This thing looks like it was randomly generated in No Man's Sky:
Hoooooly shit.
I don't know what to say. This changes a lot.
Who else had hooves?!