Scientists think they had an unusual view of the dinosaurs’ last day after discovering the fossil of an animal they believe died on that day.
The perfectly preserved leg, which also includes remains of animal skin, can be accurately dated to when the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs hit Earth 66 million years ago. years, according to experts, due to the presence of debris from which it rains immediately afterwards.
“It’s pretty crazy,” said Philip Manning, professor of natural history at the University of Manchester. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that the leg of a celiosaur discovered at the Tanis dig site in North Dakota was “the ultimate dinosaur pestle”.
He said: “The temporal resolution that we can make on this site is beyond our wildest dreams… It shouldn’t really exist and it’s absolutely amazing. I never dreamed throughout my career that I could watch something a) so limited in time; and b) very beautiful, as you tell such a wonderful story.
The fossils were filmed for a BBC documentary, Dinosaurs: The Last Day with Sir David Attenborough; During which the presenter reviews the fossil discoveries. When Sir David looked[the leg]”It’s an impossible fossil,” he smiled. “And I agreed,” Manning said.
He said the team also discovered the remains of fish that had inhaled debris from the asteroid impact, which occurred 1,864 miles (3,000 km) away in the Gulf of Mexico.
That and the presence of other debris that rained down for a specific period immediately after the asteroid impact allowed the site to be dated much more accurately than standard carbon dating techniques.
Robert DiPalma, the University of Manchester graduate student who is leading the excavations at Tanis, said: “We have so much detail about this site that it tells us what happened in every moment, like you saw it in the movies. You look at the rock a pillar, you look at the fossils there, and it takes you back to that day.
The BBC reported that the team also found the fossilized remains of a turtle grilled on skewers by a wooden stake, small mammals and their burrows, as well as the skin of a triceratops, a pterosaur embryo inside its egg, and what scientists believe could be part of the asteroid impact itself. .
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