"Dinosaur Mummy" Has Skin Like Birds' and Crocodiles'

The skin of a 66-million-year-old duckbilled dinosaur pokes out of the soil at the Hell Creek formation in North Dakota in 2007. Advanced imaging and chemical techniques later revealed that the dinosaur had skin like that of birds or crocodiles, a July 2009 study says. [Photograph by Tyler Lyson, copyright NGS]

There's no evidence of goosebumps just yet, but a remarkably preserved dinosaur reveals that the prehistoric reptile had skin like that of birds and crocodiles, a new study says.

"This is the closest you're going to get to patting the animal," said excavation leader Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Britain's University of Manchester.

Advanced imaging and chemical techniques revealed that the 66-million-year-old "mummified" duckbilled dinosaur had two layers of skin, as do modern vertebrates, including humans.

Such a discovery was possible because the dinosaur's skin fossilized before bacteria had a chance to eat up the tissue.

It is "absolutely amazing to be able to identify organic molecules from soft tissue that belonged to a beast that died over 66 million years ago," said Manning, whose work with the fossil was partially funded by the National Geographic Expeditions Council. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

"It's certainly in my top ten all-time fossils."

World-Class Dino

Tyler Lyson, a teenager at the time, discovered Dakota, as the fossil was later dubbed, in 1999 on his family's North Dakota property. (See photos of the "mummified" dinosaur.)

No one knows how the hippo-size animal died.

But scientists do know that the body was probably buried rapidly. The resulting low-oxygen environment and the apparent lack of disturbance to the site made Dakota a "world-class dinosaur" fossil, according to the new study, published July 1 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Building Blocks

With electron microscopes and x-rays, Manning discovered that Dakota had cell-like structures indicative of two-ply skin: a thin surface layer plus an underlying layer of dense connective tissues.

That's just like skin of modern birds and reptiles, which scientists believe are closely related to duckbilled dinosaurs.

Protein-recovery techniques used on the skin and a claw detected amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Proteins themselves, complex molecules that degrade easily over time, were not found, however.

(Related: "Oldest Dinosaur Protein Found—Blood Vessels, More.")

But Manning did identify molecules that would have broken down proteins in Dakota's body.

That's like finding fragments of a broken vase instead of the intact vase, explained Thomas R. Holtz Jr., a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland.

"What's really nice" about the new research is this protein-recovery strategy. It's the first time the skin of such a big plant-eating dinosaur has been analyzed so deeply, said Holtz, who was not involved in the research.

That Dakota's skin resembles modern vertebrate skin is not surprising but nonetheless "comforting," Holtz added.

Beyond Bones

Understanding the exact environments that froze Dakota in time may help paleontologists better target future fossil hunts, lead study author Manning said.

"Who knows? The elusive dinosaur mummies of the fossil record might be more common," added Manning, also the author of the new book Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs: Soft Tissues and Hard Science.

There's even a chance that scientists could find a Tyrannosaurus rex—a major predator of duckbilled dinosaurs—in the same area, the University of Maryland's Holtz added.

The new discovery shows "that there is a lot more to paleontology than just looking at interesting skeletons," Holtz said.

If you're limited to bones, "you lose a lot of what you can find out about ancient creatures."

The Cuélebre

The Cuélebre is the Spanish variety of dragon, specifically, from the regions of Asturias and Cantabria. Serpentine, winged and with colorful scales, the Cuélebre are immortal and obsessed with pretty, shiny objects. They hoard treasure and fairy-like blonde nymphs. The legend relating how the Cuélebre originated goes like this:

A beautiful but vain young woman disbelieves her family’s warnings against combing her hair as she admires her reflection in a pool of water. Unfortunately, a powerful water nymph living in the pool observes as she neglects her tasks in favor of this activity. Once the girl ruffles the surface of the water, as one of her hairs drops in, the nymph takes the opportunity to teach her a lesson. The nymph curses the girl; she grows huge, her hair is replaced by crests and her skin by scales, and she sprouts wings. In true fairytale fashion the maiden can only be returned to her original state by meeting a knight “who is so brave that he is not afraid of you and has a heart so pure that he finds you beautiful.” The Cuélebre hides in a cave by the sea and waits…

The Zmaj

The Zmaj comes from the Slavic country Slovenia and has much in common with other Slavic dragons – three heads that may grow back if decapitated, green scaly skin, and fire-spitting abilities. Its name, Zmaj, is a masculine version of the word for snake, which is usually feminine. The Zmaj can also be called by a much older name of murky origin, Pozoj. Slovenic dragons are generally similar in disposition to other European dragons and are featured in Christian stories of St. George as well as pre-Christian stories in which they are tricked into eating sulphur-containing gifts and thus defeated. The dragon of Ljubljana is a notable exception – it once protected the capital city and is depicted on its coat of arms.

The Níðhöggr

The Níðhöggr is a one-of-a-kind dragon that exists within Norse legend. It lives below a giant ash tree, the Yggdrasil or World Tree, which binds the nine worlds of Norse mythology together. Níðhöggr is usually translated as meaning Malice Striker (sometimes as Striker in the Dark) and lives up to his name as he viciously gnaws at the root of the World Tree that keeps him trapped above Hvergelmir, a seething cauldron, in Hel (the Nordic Hel is roughly equivalent to the English Hell). If Níðhöggr chews his way through the root of the World Tree it heralds the arrival of Ragnarök and the subsequent destruction of the world. The serpent-like Níðhöggr is described in the poem Völuspá as one who ‘sucks on the corpses of the dead.’

The Korean dragon

The Korean dragons are derived from the Chinese ones, are given very similar cultural status, and look much the same. Where the Chinese dragon has five toes and the Japanese three, the Korean has four – the dragons are said to have lost toes as they moved south. The Korean dragon has a long beard and no wings. Like other Asian dragons, the Korean variety was supposed to be peaceful and kind creatures that were strongly associated with water and agriculture. They are mostly said to live in watery places such as rivers, ponds, lakes, and oceans. Korean dragons differ from others in that history records them as being sentient and capable of understanding concepts like devotion, gratitude, and kindness.

Before a Korean dragon is a dragon it can be a creature called an imoogi. Depending on which account you read, imoogi are immature dragons that must live for 1000 years before becoming a dragon or, alternatively, cursed, hornless beings that are unable to become fully-fledged dragons.

The Yilbegän

The Yilbegän is more closely related to the Turkish and Slavic dragons of Europe than those of Eastern Asia; consequently it is portrayed as man-eating and ogre-like rather than gentle and kind, despite its Asian home. This reptilian dragon is depicted in the mythology of two ethnic groups living in Siberia – the Turkic peoples and the Siberian Tatars – as a polycephalous monster. In some legends the Yilbegän takes the form of a winged dragon or serpentine creature but in others he is a leviathan who rides an ox with 99 horns.

The Bakunawa

The Bakunawa is actually a deity that was represented as a serpentine dragon, according to Filipino mythology. He has two sets of wings, whiskers, a red tongue, and a mouth ‘the size of a lake.’ The Filipinos once thought that the Bakunawa lived in the sea at a time when the world had seven moons and that the dragons, being fascinated by their light, would rise out of the sky into the sky and consume the moons. Thus, the dragons were the cause of eclipses. To prevent the world from becoming dark the people would run out of their homes, taking their pots and pans, to make the most noise they could in order to scare the Bakunawa so they would stop eating the moons and give them the moonlight back. Interestingly, the name of the dragons, Bakunawa, can be translated as ‘moon eater’ or ‘man eater,’ the latter being atypical of Asian dragons.