Duck-billed dino’s fleshy top a historic find

UAlberta team says discovery of "mummified" dinosaur head crest offers new insight into dino appearance, behaviour. Artist's conception showing the newly discovered fleshy crest atop the head of an Edmontosaurus (Image: Julius Csotonyi) University of Alberta scientists have unearthed an exceptionally well-preserved fossil that yields new clues about the appearance and behaviour of duck-billed dinosaurs. An international team of paleontologists uncovered the duck-billed Edmontosaurus regalis last year 75 kilometres west of Grande Prairie, Alta. The fossil, a "natural cast" so well preserved it's been described as "mummified," contains skin impressions confirming—for the first time—the existence of a fleshy head crest, or cockscomb. Victoria Arbour, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Science who is working under the supervision of renowned U of A paleontologist Philip Currie, helped with analyzing CT scans of the fossil. "It really highlights how many surprises there can be in the fossil record when we get soft tissues preserved," says Arbour. "Usually we only get the hard parts, like skeletons or shells, but animals can look really different on the outside as opposed to the skeleton." The fossilized Edmontosaurus is believed to be 72 million years old, from the late Cretaceous period.