Duck-billed dinosaur fleshy midline and hooves reveal terrestrial clay-template “mummification”
Two "mummies" of the end-Cretaceous duck-billed dinosaur <i>Edmontosaurus annectens</i> 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 showed that all of the fossilized integument (skin, spike, and hoof) are preserved as a thin (less than 1 millimeter) clay template that formed on the surface of a buried carcass during decay before the 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.
Authors
- María Ciudad Real
- Nathan Myhrvold (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3994-5143)
- Stephanie L. Baumgart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9534-7389)
- Kraig L. Derstler
- Marcus Eriksen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9453-5492)
- Paul C. Sereno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7958-3701)
- Tyler M. Keillor
- Evan T. Saitta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9306-9060)
- Daniel Vidal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6054-1357)
- Lauren L. Bop
Institutions
- Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (ES)
- Santa Paula Hospital (US)
- University of Florida (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Bellevue Hospital Center (US)
- Ventura County Medical Center (US)
- Intellectual Ventures (United States) (US)
- Oldham Council (GB)
- Florida College (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-10-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adw3536
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Amphibian and Reptile Biology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.21