Scientists Find Dinosaur Fossil that May Have Been Killed by Extinction Asteroid 66 Million Years Ago

Scientists recently discovered a dinosaur fossil from 66 million years ago, when a fatal asteroid hit Earth and wiped out their entire species.

A perfectly preserved leg of a Thescelosaurus dinosaur killed on the day of the mass extinction event was found at the Tanis site in North Dakota, including a slew of fossils and skin of a triceratops, ScienceAlert reported. Scientists say that the Thescelosaurus fossil was "complete with scaly skin".

(Photo : Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 14: A fossil of the ÒTitanosaurÓ stands next to a replica of the dinosaur, one of the largest ever discovered, as it is unveiled at the American Museum of Natural History on January 14, 2016 in New York City. The replica of the ÒTitanosaurÓ weighs about 70 tons, is 17 feet tall and stretches to nearly 122 feet long. 

Along with the limb are fishes that rained down from the sky, a fossil turtle skewered by a wooden stake, and even the embryo of a flying pterosaur encased in an egg. While there has been a series of studies conducted regarding the extinction asteroid from 66 million years ago, it was an "extraordinary" opportunity to have a specimen from the cataclysm particularly.

"We've got so many details with this site that tell us what happened moment by moment, it's almost like watching it play out in the movies. You look at the rock column, you look at the fossils there, and it brings you back to that day," Robert DePalma, the University of Manchester, UK, graduate student and led the Tanis dig told BBC.

The glass-like particles of molten rock lodged in the gills of fish fossils also suggest that the site was kicked up by the asteroid's explosive impact.

A Discovery that is "Absolutely Bonkers"

According to Professor Phil Manning, DePalma's PhD supervisor at Manchester, the find was something he "never dreamt of" in his entire career. "The time resolution we can achieve at this site is beyond our wildest dreams. This really should not exist, and it's absolutely gobsmackingly beautiful," Manning said.

A BBC documentary narrated by David Attenborough filmed Tanis for a show to be broadcast on 15 April to review the discoveries.

The paleontological site, Tanis, was the last resting place of the Ark of the Covenant in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, per The New Yorker. Over the years, Tanis has become relatively unknown among Egypt's wealth of historical sites, though it yielded one of the greatest archeological troves ever found, according to National Geographics.

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Findings from the Site Attracted 'Skepticism'

Robert DePalma, a relative of film director Brian De Palma and christened Tanis and his works have received "good deal of skepticism from the paleontology community," said Kate Wong, science editor of Scientific American.

It was believed that DePalma insists on contractual clauses that give him oversight over the specimens, instead of ceding the rights and curation of the fossils to institutions. However, BBC said that outside consultants are called to verify the specimens.

According to Professor Paul Barrett from London's Natural History Museum, the leg of the Thescelosaurus was from one which died instantly, "from a group that we didn't have any previous record of what its skin looked like."

"It shows very conclusively that these animals were very scaly like lizards. They weren't feathered like their meat-eating contemporaries," Barrett said.

Moreover, Professor Steve Brusatte, an outside consultant on the documentary, added that some of the fossils discovered may have come from animals that died before the asteroid strike and were buried again during the impact.

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