One early theory was that small mammals ate dinosaur eggs and another proposes that toxic angiosperms (flowering plants) killed them off. There are several other theories as to what caused the demise of the famous animals. Other animals and plant species had a shorter time-span between generations which allowed them to survive. The fallout would have created plumes of ash that likely covered all of the planet and made it impossible for dinosaurs to survive. With the projected size and impact velocity, the collision would have caused an enormous shock-wave and likely triggered seismic activity. Scientific consensus now says that these two factors are linked and they were both probably caused by an enormous asteroid crashing to Earth. When this was dated, it coincided precisely with when the dinosaurs disappeared from the fossil record.Ī decade later, scientists uncovered the massive Chicxulub Crater at the tip of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, which dates to the period in question. This is an element that is rare on Earth but is found in vast quantities in space. In the 1980s, paleontologists discovered a layer of iridium. It was believed for many years that the changing climate destroyed the food chain of the huge reptiles. The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event is the name given to this mass extinction. The beast was not protected from scavengers - yet it became a mummy nonetheless.ĭinosaurs ruled and dominated Earth around 66 million years ago, before they suddenly went extinct. The bite marks are the first examples of unhealed damage on dinosaur skin. It shows dinosaur 'mummies' might not be as unusual as we think - thanks to a process of 'desiccation and deflation'.
They were found in 1999 by high school student Tyler Lyson on his uncle's ranch near Marmarth. It is one of only a few mummified dinosaurs in existence and has the most and best-preserved skin along with ligaments, tendons and some internal organs. The creature, nicknamed Dakota, lived about 67 million years ago and is one of the most important palaeontology discoveries in recent years. Most dinosaurs are known only from their bones, which are seldom found joined together as they would be in real life.īut a three-dimensional 'skin envelope' is complete and intact around large parts of this dinosaur's body, making it what is also known as a 'dino-mummy'. Lead author Dr Stephanie Drumheller, of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, said: 'Clusters of injuries are currently identified in three different locations - the upper and forearm and the soft tissues around the right elbow.'Įxperts believe it may have been attacked by a juvenile T Rex, before being consumed by other carnivorous dinosaurs. The remains belonged to a duckbilled plant eater called Edmontosaurus, which reached about 40ft in length and weighed four tonnes.
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