The Riddle Of The "mummified" Dinosaur - Alternative View

The Riddle Of The "mummified" Dinosaur - Alternative View
The Riddle Of The "mummified" Dinosaur - Alternative View

Video: The Riddle Of The "mummified" Dinosaur - Alternative View

Video: The Riddle Of The "mummified" Dinosaur - Alternative View
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The "mummified" duck-billed dinosaur was recently recovered from the ground in north-central Montana, USA. This find has not yet been analyzed in detail - it was only reported at a meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. In a small note in the "News" section of Science, it was noted that this dinosaur is a big mystery.

Called Leonardo, this 7-meter dinosaur weighing 2 tons is the first "mummified" dinosaur described in the last 70 years. Despite the fact that the dinosaur's body was crushed by an exorbitant weight, among other fossils, a three-dimensional mineralized cast of the right shoulder, throat tissue and skin fragments was found. More than 80 percent of the skin is intact. The dinosaur was recovered from the ground in a 6.5 ton limestone massif. It will take many years for experts to dig up and explain this find.

During sample preparation, a small piece of petrified skin fell off the side of the dinosaur, and this immediately gave rise to mysteries. The researchers were able to discover what the dinosaur ate the last time - it was mainly magnolia flowers and conifers. Fern and liver moss pollen and spores were also found. Liver moss grows in humid subtropical climates and dies even in a short period of drought. However, according to the assumptions of scientists, Leonardo was mummified. If this dinosaur died in the environment evidenced by these plant materials (as the uniformitarian suggests), then how could the dinosaur die out in such an important subtropical climate?

The experts were asked questions during the meeting. They compared this riddle to a long-dead but perfectly preserved elephant, discovered earlier in the humid tropical jungle.

This paradox is difficult to explain, and the evidence suggests that the normal decomposition process was most likely stopped in some way a few days after the animal died. This is why scientists have suggested that the dinosaur was mummified. However, the dinosaur was buried in the sand, which hardened and turned into sandstone. Sand and even sandstone have a fairly porous structure. Water easily penetrates the sand. This situation further complicates the puzzle, since the porosity of the sand structure should have facilitated the decomposition of soft tissues.

One of the researchers made this assumption: "Perhaps minerals from the river seeped into the soft tissues of the dinosaur and preserved its body, after the animal was buried in the riverbed."

However, such a scenario is unlikely in today's environment, as well as in conditions that, according to the uniformitarian worldview, existed in the past. The animal had to, first of all, quickly find itself buried in the sand, and then completely mineralize within a few days and survive thanks to the chemicals circulating in the sand. Very few river sands (if any) are capable of such skill. It is more likely that, after death, the dinosaur's body was quickly buried in the sand and the chemical-laden water penetrated through the pores in the sand. These chemicals quickly stored it and turned it into stone. It is very likely that the water was under high pressure, which indicates the rapid deposition of tens of meters of sedimentary rocks in a short period of time. In this case,excess pressure could displace water and lithify sand and dinosaur.

The observations from the study of this new "mummified" dinosaur are consistent with conditions that could have arisen from widespread sedimentation during the worldwide Flood, when the flood waters began to rise above the ground.

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