new found species of nodosaur called Borealopelta Markmitchelli

Courtesy of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Drumheller, Canada

This new discovery just published in the journal Current Biology started on March 21, 2011, at the Suncor Millennium Mine in Alberta, Canada, when a mining machine operator in an oil sand mine noticed something odd about some of the rock formations.  The Royal Tyrrell Museum was called in and Curator of Dinosaurs Donald Henderson, realized that the rocks contained an armored dinosaur and so much more.  The 110-million-year-old fossil is a newly found species of nodosaur called Borealopelta markmitchelli, and is regarded as the best-preserved armored dinosaur in the world.  After more than 7,000 hours of slowly and gently removing rock the fossilized remains revealed armor, bones (complete head, neck and right forelimb, a partial torso and left forelimb), stomach contents and even a thin film of organic material, thought to be remains of pigments from the skin and horns all preserved in three dimensions.

This new beefy nodosaur, currently on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Alberta, Canada, was covered in armor, measured in at 18-foot-long (5.5 m) and weighed in at more than 2,800 pounds.  But Borealopelta markmitchelli was a giant herbivore who according to a detailed study of its remains, used countershading, a common form of camouflage (like giraffes) in which an animal’s underside is lighter than its back.  The Royal Tyrrell Museum team found geochemical markers in the ancient skin that helped them determine the dinosaur had a reddish-black skin hue that was darkest on top and faded on its underbelly.  This according to paleontologists means that this huge monster was hiding when it could because it was still on the menu of keen eyed meat-eating dinosaurs that tended to rely on vision, unlike today’s predators that are more smell oriented hunters.

Great video on Borealopelta markmitchelli,entitled: Does a 110-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Still Have Its Skin?

Transcript of video below:

0:00
an arresting image of a mummified
0:01
dinosaur went viral this weekend after
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National Geographic broke the story of
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the 110 million year old armored plant
0:09
eater a newfound species of notice for
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his exquisite remains are now on display
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in a royal Tirol Museum in Alberta
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Canada the ancient animal is obviously a
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remarkable specimen not just a few
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battered bones but an entire creature
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transformed into stone with bits of the
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original soft tissue still preserved
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when I first saw images of the Beast
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which was photographed for the June
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issue of National Geographic I had to
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know how it came to be so well preserved
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and if there are other jeanna mummies
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like it so I called up Caleb brown one
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of the paleontologists who has been
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studying the fossil since it was first
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unearthed from the Alberta tar sands in
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2011 he was quick to emphasize just how
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special this specimen was this is one of
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the best preserved dinosaurs in the
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world Brown said the skin is made up of
1:01
individual scales kind of hexagonal or
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octagonal polygons interspersed with us
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theorems which are body armor what sets
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it apart is each of those osteoderms has
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a layer of keratin the same stuff your
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fingernails are made of that is almost
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never preserved this is one of the best
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preserved dinosaurs in the world Brown
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added that while his team can’t see the
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skeleton because it’s beneath hundreds
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of pounds of better fide dinosaur flesh
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they are currently using corpse scanning
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to analyze the innards as much as
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possible we might eventually be able to
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tell a bit about its internal organs
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even its last meal he said so how does a
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massive lump of flesh manage to elude
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decomposition for 110 million years last
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meal and all obviously we can’t turn
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back the clock and find out but
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knowledge of the environment that the
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novusera lived and died in has allowed
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Brown and his colleagues to reconstruct
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a likely scenario according to Brown
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back in the early to mid Cretaceous
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Alberta would have been a very different
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place a large Inland Sea stretched from
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the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean
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very warm and very shallow
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most of the dinosaurs we find are
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preserved near the coast where big river
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system sent loads of sediment rushing
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into that inland ocean trapping and
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fossilized bits of ancient animals that
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died along the way but the study know
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was in found along a coastline where it
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would have much leafy greens in an
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environment similar to the Florida
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Everglades it was found offshore at the
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bottom of an ancient seabed the animal
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was preserved in an environment it
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didn’t live in Brown said it would have
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been living on land and washed out to
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sea
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probably after it died by the time the
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armored-car curse arrived in the ocean
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the decomposition process would have
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begun trillions of bacteria breaking
2:55
down its cells and releasing noxious
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gases its body would have started to
3:00
inflate like a great stinky flesh
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balloon buoying it along on the warm
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shallow sea blowed and float marine
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biologists call it the putrid hot pocket
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would continued on this merry way until
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eventually something caused it to
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explode at some point it would have
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burst and sink rapidly Brown said we
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know that because we have this impact
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crater preserved for it was found after
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smashing unceremoniously into the
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seafloor the deflated notice or was
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probably buried under a thick layer of
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mud protecting it from scavengers low
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oxygen levels at the bottom of the ocean
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could have also impeded decomposition
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eventually the Beast became petrified
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through and through hard minerals
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replacing its squishy soft tissues
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although according to Brown the soft bit
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stones seemed to be entirely gone I
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guess the take-home messages whenever
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you are excavating rocks or a road cut
3:58
mine whatever be on the lookout for
4:01
these important fossils it’s not just
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the texture of the skin some of the
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organics are still there he said adding
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that he couldn’t go into details on the
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chemistry of the Dino mummy just yet as
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the results are pending publication most
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of the body has become petrified my
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co-author likes to joke that it’s in a
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sarcophagus and as for whether there are
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other Dino mummies out there waiting to
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be unearthed from the
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ancient seas Brown emphasized that the
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conditions which led to this nor thus or
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becoming petrified whole are extremely
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unusual more unusual cell is humans
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happening to stick their shovels in
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precisely the right spot to find such a
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creature but he doesn’t doubt there are
4:42
more petrified beasts of the Cretaceous
4:44
out there swallowed whole by the earth
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by some strange combination of death and
4:49
physics there are almost certainly more
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out there he said noting that the notice
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or mummy was discovered by chance by a
4:56
heavy equipment operator who was
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excavating in an Alberta mine for the
5:00
energy company Suncor I guess the
5:03
take-home messages whenever you are
5:05
excavating rock for a road cut mine
5:08
whatever be on the lookout for these
5:11
important fossils