A DINOSAUR MUMMY 



Hi/ Iliiirji Fiiirlidd Oshoni 



TWO years ayo, tlirou^li the Jcsup I'liiid, tlic Miisciiiii cinic into 

 possession of a most unique specimen, (liscoNcicd in August, lOOS. 

 I)y tin- veteran fossil hunter ('harles H. Sternberg of Kansas. It is 

 a large herljivorous dinosaur belonging to the closing period of the Age of 

 Reptiles, and is known to palaeontologists as Trdcluxloii, or more popularly 

 as the "duck-hilled dinosaur." 



The skel'»ton, or hard parts of these \"er\- remai-kahle aiiimals has been 

 knovvn for over forty years, and a few speeinu'us had preserved with them 

 small areas of the impressions of the epidermal covering, but it was not 

 until the discovery of the Sternberg specimen that a knowledge of the 

 outer covering of the.se dinosaurs was gained. It appears proi)able that 

 in a numl)er of cases these priceless skin impressions were mostly destroyed 

 in remo\ing the fossil specimens from their surroundings Ijecause the ex- 

 plorers were not expecting to find anything of the kind. Altogether seven 

 specimens have been discovered in which these delicate skin impressions 

 were partly preserved, but the "trachodon nnunmy" far surpasses all the 

 others, as it yields a nearly complete picture of the outer covering. 



The reason the Sternberg specimen (Trachodon aniit'cfrn.s) nuiy be known 

 as a dinosaur "mummy" is that in all the parts of the animal which are 

 preserved (i. e. all except the hind limbs and the tail) the epidermis is 

 shrunken around the limbs, tightly drawn along the l)ony surfaces and 

 contracted like a great curtain below the chest area. This condition of 

 the epidermis suggests the following theory of the deposition and i)reser- 

 vation of this wonderful specimen, namely: that after d\ ing a natural 

 death the animal was not attacked or preyed upon by its enemies and the 

 body lay exposed to the sun entirely undisturbed for a long time, perhaps 

 upon a broad sand flat of a stream in the low-water stage; the nuisdes 

 and viscera thus became completely dehydrated, or desiccated by the action 

 of the sun, the epidermis .shrank around the limbs, was tightly drawn down 

 along all the bony surfaces, and became hardened and leatliery; on the 

 abdominal surfaces the epidermis was certainly drawn within the body 

 cavity, while it was thrown into ereasc-s and folds alonu' the sides ot the 

 body, owing to the shrinkage of the tissues within. At the termination of 

 a possible low-water season, during which these processes of desiccation 

 took place, the "mummy" may have been caught in a sud<len Hood, carried 



