Fossil Find Is Skin Deep

Two separate discoveries of fossilised dinosaur skin from the USA and China have got the world of palaeontology all in a spin. Our resident dino-guru, Ben Lake, looks forward to a bright new future for dinosaur scientists and Hollywood directors alike.

Let’s get this straight, I love fossils. I want to make a career out of their study. And I believe they provide a window into the past, so it's important we make sure we clean it regularly with proper branded window cleaner, not just the smart price stuff.

As much as I love fossils there's one thing any palaeontologist will tell you is frustrating about them: the soft parts are so rarely preserved. This is why the two recent finds of dinosaur skin preserved in 3D are such exciting discoveries.

The 3D structure of both fossils will allow palaeontologists to work out how these animals moved, as well as allowing film-makers to bring us ever more realistic reconstructions of ever more annoying characters experiencing ever more grisly dino-death.

Dinosaur skin looked suspiciously like a ruler.
Click image to enlarge.

The fossils were unearthed in China and North Dakota. The North Dakota animal, nicknamed (you’ll never guess) Dakota, is a hadrosaur or “duck billed dinosaur” as they are sometimes better known. They would walk on four legs most of the time but if they were feeling fancy could walk on two. They are best known for being attentive parents, even possibly sharing duties of caring for infants between family members (like humans do when they can’t afford a nursery).

The Chinese animal is a Psittacosaurus (say it slowly); a gazelle-sized beast that may or may not have had feathers, but that’s another issue. It would probably have filled its schedule with the eating of leaves and ferns in between not getting devoured. Something our amazingly preserved friend failed dismally to do – there are signs that it was seriously munched by a predator before it was covered with sediment and preserved.

In the case of Dakota, the body is preserved almost completely intact with not just skin but also muscle fibres preserved in place. Philip Manning of the University of Manchester worked out, using CT scanners, that the muscle mass in these creatures is 25% more than originally estimated.

With some clever computer modelling, that involves funny symbols and laws created by reclusive German mathematicians, Manning has suggested that hadrosaurs could run at 28mph. Faster than a T. Rex. This as you can guess is extremely handy and not just for early morning dash to the bathroom (assuming hadrosaurs and T. rex’s shared a flat).

With the Psittacosaurus being a Chinese discovery little is known of what information it contains; Chinese research groups are often very secretive until publication.

However, these two spectacular fossils, alongside a wealth of new finds of feathered dinosaurs from China, mean that this is an exciting time to be a dinosaur researcher and not just because Jurassic Park 4 could soon be on our screens.

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