Photo Authentically Shows Dinosaur Limb with ‘Remarkable’ Features

Claim:

A photograph authentically shows a dinosaur limb with intact skin.

Rating:

An image shared to Reddit in October 2024 claimed to show the hoof of a dinosaur found “with fully intact skin.” The post had been upvoted more than 49,000 times at the time of this writing.

The hoof of a Hadrosaur dinosaur was discovered with fully intact skin.
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The photograph is authentic. The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources‘ paleontology program posted it on the group’s X profile on Oct. 17, 2019.

“Many of you may have seen this image spread across social media last night. This is indeed a portion of ‘Dakota’ the Dinomummy, which is part of the North Dakota State Fossil Collection,” NDGS wrote.

“Dakota the Dinomummy” went on exhibit in February 2020. The image shows the right manus, or hand, of an Edmontosaurus, a species of the duck-billed hadrosaur.

According to the State Museum at the North Dakota Heritage Center, where Dakota is housed, the mummified hadrosaur is “one of only a handful” – if you will – in the world, unique due to its “rare skin preservation.”

“Unlike previous dinosaur mummies, which typically show skin impressions in rock, Dakota’s skin appears mostly intact with visible scales. This makes Dakota one of the most scientifically important dinosaurs ever found,” the museum says on its website.

Dakota was discovered in 1999 on a ranch in the southwestern corner of North Dakota, according to the State Historical Society of North Dakota. In a 2021 blog post, the organization wrote:

Dakota is an adolescent Edmontosaurus, one genus in a larger group of duck-billed dinosaurs called hadrosaurs. Dakota died in the swampy environment that was ancient North Dakota during the Late Cretaceous epoch, which lasted from about 100 to 66 million years ago. The carcass remained exposed long enough for the skin to dry, then the remains were buried in sedimentary material allowing for the preservation of some of the soft organs and skin. They have since become stone, but their distinctive mass and textures remain. The muscles and tendons are particularly recognizable in the tail section.

Becky Barnes, a paleontologist with the North Dakota Geological Survey, published photos of Dakota’s skin and fingernail-size scales in 2019. The images show skin near the “dinomummy’s” elbow, with small scales and wrinkles to accommodate movement (left), and skin on the mid-forearm, an area between joints and without movement, with fingernail-size scales (right).

(State Historical Society of North Dakota)

With a “horny beak and 1,000 grinding cheek teeth,” the National History Museum in the U.K. describes the “Edmonton lizard” as a nearly 40-foot-long dinosaur found in Canada during the Late Cretaceous period, roughly 70 million years ago. Mummified specimens have been found with preserved skin and stomachs filled with food, such as conifer needles and seeds.

Dakota is “an exceptionally preserved specimen,” the National History Museum told Snopes.

A 2013 study analyzing the sediment that once entombed Dakota noted that the specimen “is remarkable in having exceptional three-dimensional preservation of soft tissues around the skeleton, indicating rapid burial.” Dinosaurs with soft-tissue preservation are rare in the fossil record because of decay and scavengers that deteriorate a carcass before it’s buried and fossilized. Based on sediment and plant remains found along Dakota, scientists were able to recreate the dinosaur’s ancient habitat, consisting of a “forest with a canopy of evergreen conifers.”

(Cretaceous Research)

But as researchers wrote in 2022 in an analysis of Dakota’s soft tissue preservation, the term “mummy” has become an “informal catch-all for fossils exhibiting extremely well-preserved skin and sometimes other soft tissues.” Study authors argued that natural mummies may be preserved in different pathways that may inform future research.

One method, desiccation and deflation, refers to the long-term exposure of remains in a terrestrial setting whereby the animal loses gases and fluids, decomposes over time, and, though preserved, lacks organs and exhibits a deflated appearance.

A second explanation, rapid burial, preserves a mummy in three dimensions – often in sediment – to protect its decomposition from scavengers and bacteria.

Finally, aqueous anoxia describes mummies preserved after being placed in a no- or low-oxygen water environment that experiences no scavenging and very little microbial activity. 

Sources