Shawn Funk, a Canadian maneuver for heavy mining equipment, made some interesting prehistoric discoveries in the mine that he was working on. He discovered fossilized roots of trees and some fossilized plants.
On March 21, 2011, while exploring the Alberta area, he made a breakthrough that surpasses everything he has discovered until then and can be considered a true holy grail of paleontology. While digging, Funk hit something stronger than the rock in the area. Together with his boss, Mike Gratton, they realized they hit something hard something like a block brown walnut wood.
They immediately realized they had discovered a prehistoric animal and immediately contacted some paleontologists. Paleontologists at the Royal Tyrell Museum arrived immediately and examining the fossil, they realized it was a dinosaur.
They worked for 12 hours to remove the fossil from the ground. Unfortunately, they were unable to remove the fossil as a whole piece, but into fragments that they had transported to the museum where the reconstitution process began.
Researchers at the museum realized they were dealing with something special. Usually, when the dinosaur fossils are discovered, only the bones and the skull are found, but now there is a whole dinosaur with his skin on it. Caleb Brown says we have not only a dinosaur skeleton but all the dinosaur.
The fossils of this dinosaur have amazed paleontologists around the world because it is perfectly preserved.
Paleontologist Jakob Vinther of the University of Bristol says this fossil, this dinosaur, is so well preserved that he could have walked here a few weeks ago. Jakob also says he has never seen anything like that before.
What’s more interesting is that this dinosaur has been identified as a rare species of ankylosaur, which has not been discovered yet, a nodosaur. The nodosaur has no lethal claws, but its skin is a real armor, hard to penetrate. They are supposed to have lived in Canada 110-112 million years ago during the middle Cretaceous period. Paleontologists say that Nodosaurus is an herbivore.
The Royal Tyrell Museum will open this month an exhibition of exciting discoveries made throughout Alberta, where Nodosaurus will be the central piece.
