Integumentary impressions on hadrosaurid specimens from the Upper Cretaceous (upper Campanian) Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, Canada: implications for integument patterns and hand morphology

Article Geology

New scale type from a small-bodied hadrosaur in the Frenchman Formation of southern Saskatchewan: Potential implications for integumentary diversity in Edmontosaurus annectens

Caelan Libke et al.

Summary: This study provides the first full description of hadrosaurid skin from the Frenchman Formation in Malaysia. The specimen, tentatively identified as Edmontosaurus annectens, has unique corrugated scales not previously observed in this species. It expands the morphological diversity of scales in E. annectens and suggests variability in the maximum body length reached by some adult individuals. The findings highlight the importance of intraspecific variation and taxonomic utility in hadrosaurid skin.

CRETACEOUS RESEARCH (2022)

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Article Multidisciplinary Sciences

Biostratinomic alterations of an Edmontosaurus mummy reveal a pathway for soft tissue preservation without invoking exceptional conditions

Stephanie K. Drumheller et al.

Summary: Fast burial is a common mechanism for preserving soft tissues in fossils, but not all fossils fit into this category. This study presents an Edmontosaurus mummy that demonstrates an alternative fossilization pathway for resistant soft tissues. The well-preserved skin on the specimen shows signs of carnivore activity, indicating incomplete scavenging of the carcass. This allowed for gases, fluids, and microbes associated with decomposition to escape, enabling the durable soft tissues to persist before desiccation and fossilization.

PLOS ONE (2022)

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Article Multidisciplinary Sciences

Calibrating the zenith of dinosaur diversity in the Campanian of the Western Interior Basin by CA-ID-TIMS U-Pb geochronology

Jahandar Ramezani et al.

Summary: This study presents a high-resolution chronostratigraphic framework for the Upper Cretaceous terrestrial strata of North America's Western Interior Basin, revealing significant age overlap between key fossil-bearing formations. The results support a connection between paleoecology and fossil diversities, helping to overcome chronostratigraphic ambiguities and test proposed models of latitudinal provinciality of dinosaur taxa during the Campanian.

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS (2022)

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Article Paleontology