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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/dec/28/top-fossil-discoveries-of-2017
This is a new armoured dinosaur (a relative of the famous Ankylosaurus) whose discovery was first reported in these pages back in 2013 because of the exceptional circumstances around its discovery in northern Alberta. Spotted by an excavator crew as a dot on a hillside, this remarkable creature is a real rarity, a land living animal that had floated many miles out to sea before it sank, intact, was buried, and eventually recovery millions of years later. The rock in which it was entombed was exceptionally tough and the bones fragile, so it took museum preparator Mark Mitchell years to prepare. He was rewarded when the animal was finally named as a new species.
However, the fossil itself turned out to be more remarkable still than the circumstances around its death and fossilisation. Borealopelta is one of the best preserved dinosaurs ever discovered: not only is the main skeleton very nearly complete, but the huge number of bony spikes and plates that make up its armour are also preserved. Better yet, they retain their original positions, so it is possible to see how they line up and change along the body. Even better still, much of the armour retains the horny sheathes that covered it. The skin of the animal is brilliantly preserved and in such fidelity that work has already been published on the colours and patterns of Borealopelta, and the likely use of its huge shoulder spines in displays.
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Fossils this well preserved are very rare & as a result we can learn a lot by studying them. It's also striking that dinosaurs lived as far north as northern Alberta.
This is a new armoured dinosaur (a relative of the famous Ankylosaurus) whose discovery was first reported in these pages back in 2013 because of the exceptional circumstances around its discovery in northern Alberta. Spotted by an excavator crew as a dot on a hillside, this remarkable creature is a real rarity, a land living animal that had floated many miles out to sea before it sank, intact, was buried, and eventually recovery millions of years later. The rock in which it was entombed was exceptionally tough and the bones fragile, so it took museum preparator Mark Mitchell years to prepare. He was rewarded when the animal was finally named as a new species.
However, the fossil itself turned out to be more remarkable still than the circumstances around its death and fossilisation. Borealopelta is one of the best preserved dinosaurs ever discovered: not only is the main skeleton very nearly complete, but the huge number of bony spikes and plates that make up its armour are also preserved. Better yet, they retain their original positions, so it is possible to see how they line up and change along the body. Even better still, much of the armour retains the horny sheathes that covered it. The skin of the animal is brilliantly preserved and in such fidelity that work has already been published on the colours and patterns of Borealopelta, and the likely use of its huge shoulder spines in displays.
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Fossils this well preserved are very rare & as a result we can learn a lot by studying them. It's also striking that dinosaurs lived as far north as northern Alberta.
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