The duck-billed dinosaurs have been giving up their secrets lately. Just yesterday researchers revealed new details of how hadrosaurs chewed their food, using a set of teeth that look like a “cranial cuisinart.” Today, paleontologists have put the hadrosaur’s skin on display, thanks to a “mummified” creature that shows the shape of its soft tissue and cell-like structures...
For the study, which will be published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers used advanced imaging techniques to get under the hadrosaur’s skin. A study of the cell structures show that, like modern-day crocodiles and birds, the skin was made up of two layers: a surface epidermis against a deeper dermis layer made up of dense connective tissue. Although that finding is what might have been expected based on the presumed lineage of the modern animals, Dr Manning said it is “clean science” [BBC News] that further supports the theory that dinosaurs left behind some descendants.
There's even a picture. Read the entire article: Dinosaur “Mummy” Reveals a Creature With Bird-Like Skin.
Here's another article on the same subject -- Dinosaur mummy yields its secrets -- but with a slightly larger picture. Hey, we don't get to see that many pictures of dinosaur skin; might as well check it out while they're in the neighborhood...
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