A “dragon” arises from the oil sandsMany of you have seen this news already, but for tho

A “dragon” arises from the oil sandsMany of you have seen this news already, but for those that may have been a little distracted lately, allow me tell you that although the creature you see in the pictures below may look like one of Khaleesi’s dragons from Game of Thrones, in fact, what we see is a fossil of a nodosaur. It may appear menacing, but the fossilized remains were once a dinosaur – a herbivore that weighed roughly 3,000 pounds and measured 18-feet long.This amazing fossil from the middle Cretaceous (roughly 112 million years ago) was discovered in 2011 by an oil sands miner while working at the Suncor Millenium Mine in Alberta, Canada. After uncovering the unexpected discovery, the mining company notified the Royal Tyrrell Museum.It was a lot of hard work to move the 15,000-pound rock that contained the nodosaur fossil to the museum. Additionally, over 7,000 hours were required to expose the animal’s skin, but it was well worth it. The work unveiled a very well preserved fossil and although only the front half of the nodosaur was conserved, we can clearly see its skin and soft tissue, the armor and also stomach content in the form of pebble-like masses.Usually, fossils are found flattened, but not this one; it presents a three dimensional shape and we can recognize in it 20-inch-long spikes and individual scales. This outstanding level of preservation was possible, because the animal was quickly buried under the sea after its death. Then, minerals infiltrated the animal’s skin and armor and that is how the fossil obtained its realistic appearance.Its skin and armor provide plenty of data – like how the animal moved and what it looked like – but since the fossil is so well preserved and the rock is quite opaque, CT scans did not reveal much information regarding the bones. What’s really neat is that at a microscopic scale, it is possible to observe traces of the dinosaur’s coloration.It is also worth to mentioning the importance of having an association between the scientists and the industry workers, which was key to ensuring this remarkable specimen was kept in tact. Lack of scientific education and sensibilization could have lead to the destruction of this magnificent “dragon”, but we are glad this nodosaur “survived” so we can learn from it.–SuSources:http://on.natgeo.com/2r9oERthttp://bit.ly/2qwSWPWhttp://nyti.ms/2pvv54iPhoto credits:http://on.natgeo.com/2r9oERt - photos by Robert Clark/National Geographichttp://bit.ly/2qwSWPW - photo courtesy of Government of Albertahttp://on.natgeo.com/2r9oERt - ilustration by David Bonadonna/National Graphic__ -- source link

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