Exceptionally well-preserved fossil in the American Museum of Natural History
The Edmontosaurus mummy AMNH 5060 at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in top view
The Edmontosaurus mummy AMNH 5060 is an exceptionally well-preserved fossil of a dinosaur in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Discovered in 1908 in the United States near Lusk, Wyoming, it was the first dinosaur specimen found to include a skeleton encased in skin impressions from large parts of the body. It is ascribed to the species Edmontosaurus annectens (originally known as Trachodon annectens), a hadrosaurid ("duck-billed dinosaur"). The mummy was found by fossil hunter Charles Hazelius Sternberg and his three sons in the Lance Formation. Although Sternberg was working under contract to the British Museum of Natural History, Henry Fairfield Osborn of the AMNH managed to secure the mummy. Osborn described the fossil in detail in 1912, coining the name "dinosaur mummy" for it—several dinosaur mummies of similar preservation have been discovered since then. This specimen has considerably influenced the scientific conception of hadrosaurids. Skin impressions found in between the fingers were once interpreted as interdigital webbing, bolstering the now-rejected perception of hadrosaurids as aquatic animals, a hypothesis that remained unchallenged until 1964. Today, the mummy is considered one of the most important fossils of the AMNH.
The mummy was discovered lying on its back, its neck twisted backwards and its forelimbs outstretched. The skeleton is complete save the tail, hind feet, and the hind portion of the pelvis. All bones are preserved unflattened and still connected to each other. Almost two-thirds of the skin is preserved. Delicate for the size of the animal, the skin includes two different types of non-overlapping scales that were between 1 and 5 millimetres (0.039 and 0.197 inches) in diameter. In contrast with other similar dinosaur mummies, the skin of AMNH 5060 was tightly attached to the bones and partially drawn into the body interior, indicating that the carcass dried out before burial. The specimen would thus constitute the fossil of a natural mummy. After dehydration, the mummy likely would have been rapidly buried by a meandering river, with bacteria consolidating the surrounding sediments, resulting in its excellent preservation.
and 29 Related for: Edmontosaurus mummy AMNH 5060 information
discovered the EdmontosaurusmummyAMNH5060 in the same region, which is now on display at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City...
(duck-billed) dinosaur. It contains two known species: Edmontosaurus regalis and Edmontosaurus annectens. Fossils of E. regalis have been found in rocks...
term was coined by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1911 for an Edmontosaurus specimen (AMNH5060) discovered in 1908 by fossil hunter Charles Hazelius Sternberg...
specimens of C. annectens were recovered. The first, the "Trachodon mummy," AMNH5060, was discovered in 1908 by Charles Hazelius Sternberg and his sons...
not a particularly close relative of classic "hadrosaurines" such as Edmontosaurus and Saurolophus. As a result of this, the name Hadrosaurinae was restricted...
described remains of Saurolophus in 1911, including a nearly complete skeleton (AMNH 5220). Now on display in the American Museum of Natural History, this skeleton...
similar to and shares many unique characters with Edmontosaurus, forming a node of an Edmontosaurus–Shantungosaurus clade between North America and Asia...
supported by skin preserved above the neck and back of Corythosaurus and Edmontosaurus. Subsequently, reconstructions of Parasaurolophus with a substantial...
infancy at this point, and only the species known today as Edmontosaurus annectens, Edmontosaurus regalis, and Gryposaurus notabilis (at that time thought...
in 1912. AMNH 5240 is thus the holotype. In 1916, the original author, Brown, published a more detailed description that was also based on AMNH 5338, which...
tomography and fluoroscope screening. Several other hadrosaurids, including Edmontosaurus, Gilmoreosaurus, and Bactrosaurus, also tested positive. Although more...
found in Big Horn County, Montana by an American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) expedition in 1903. Subsequent digs in the same area during the 1930s unearthed...
Dryosaurus altus. They include specimens YPM 1884: the rear half of a skeleton; AMNH 834: a partial skeleton lacking the skull from the Bone Cabin Quarry; and...
hadrosaur research. One such specimen was the very complete AMNH5060 (belonging to Edmontosaurus annectens), recovered in 1908 by the fossil collector Charles...
recovered a duckbill skull in 1915 for the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH 5836) from the Red Deer River of Alberta, near Steveville. He described the...
postcranial skeleton consisting of several vertebrae and a partial pelvis (AMNH 5204), came from along the Red Deer River near Tolman Ferry, Alberta, Canada...
fragmented, and Brown reconstructed this portion after what is now called Edmontosaurus, leaving out many fragments. However, he had noticed that something...
taxa that lack them. The clade is defined as all the taxa closer to Edmontosaurus regalis than Probactrosaurus gobiensis. This results in different taxon...
the American Museum of Natural History, from the Dinosaur Park Formation (AMNH 5340). Parks believed that the procedure and description were inadequate...
Global Information