October 11, 2002
11:33 AM   Subscribe

Coming soon to a museum near you: Attack of the Dinosaur Mummy! (not really though). This very rare, complete dinosaur specimen decayed in such a way that its skin remained intact as well as the contents of its stomach. It was presented yesterday at an annual meeting of scientists.
posted by mathowie (10 comments total)
 
As seen on lofi.mefi. Looks like matt deleted a post made before his...

I guess his *was* better....

This was also *just* posted on slashdot.
posted by psychotic_venom at 11:41 AM on October 11, 2002


This is exciting news for a dinosaur junkie like me. Hadrosaurs weren't feathered, I guess. Very, very interesting stuff.
posted by mcwetboy at 11:45 AM on October 11, 2002


Scott asked me to use mine instead of his. We're both on a mailing list where the link came up, no idea if it was from slashdot.
posted by mathowie at 11:45 AM on October 11, 2002


mcwetboy, it might be more appropriate to say *this* Hadrosaur wasn't feathered. And yes, this is very very interesting stuff. I had planned to get to Malta earlier this year and check Leonardo out, but car trouble .... (Grrrr!).
posted by Wulfgar! at 11:49 AM on October 11, 2002


Scott asked me to use mine instead of his.

heh. That's what I would say too. *chuckle*

On a serious note now: I'm going to read the links. (ahum)
posted by ginz at 11:51 AM on October 11, 2002


The contents of the stomach suggest this dinosaur did not die of starvation. Perhaps the preservation of Leonardo's body may allow for research of his cause of death?
posted by quam at 12:02 PM on October 11, 2002


ferns, conifers and a magnolia-type plant
Hey! Those are the contents of my stomach.
posted by Fabulon7 at 1:02 PM on October 11, 2002


I couldn't tell from the article something that's always been bugging me: how do dinosaur films know what colour dinosaurs were - they always end up a neutral green or grey. They could have been bright pink or striped like a zebra for all we know!
posted by Zootoon at 1:32 PM on October 11, 2002


Zootoon, no dinosaur artist has ever really known what color they were, or even what to expect of skin textures (feathers, bumps, scales?). Only recent discoveries like Leonardo offer the opportunity to answer these questions. And even still, not everybody agrees with what gets found.
posted by Wulfgar! at 2:07 PM on October 11, 2002


how do dinosaur films know what colour dinosaurs were

The best thing you can do is try to figure out what ecological niche the dinosaur would have occupied based on physical characteristics and surrounding fossils and then look at existing animals that are in the same niche to see what kind of adaptations they have (i.e. coloring for camoflage, coloring for mating, coloring for deception).

It's a lot of guess work, but it's more and more often pretty ecologically sound guesswork (and the dinosaurs are gray and green less often these days).
posted by iceberg273 at 2:12 PM on October 11, 2002


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