- The only complete dinosaur skeleton ever discovered was in storage for 160 years before receiving the attention it deserved.
- Over the past three years, researchers have been compiling the skeleton and learning a lot about its history.
- The animal, a Scelidosaurus, was closely related to ankylosaurs.
Over the centuries, researchers have found many, many dinosaur fossils. We’ve learned about hundreds of species that lived millions and millions of years ago through those fossil bones … but how many complete dinosaur skeletons would you guess are there? One hundred? Maybe a thousand? More?
Believe it or not, the vast majority of skeletons found are somehow incomplete. Scientists have to work together parts from different specimens to get the full picture of what a dinosaur looked like. And when it comes to complete dinosaur skeletons, there is only one. Yes, one.
The dinosaur, which is a Scelidosaurus, is not exactly a new invention. In fact, it was more than a quarter of a century ago that it was first discovered off the south coast of England. It was discovered in an area now known for its immense age, with rocks dating back nearly 200 million years.
When it was first discovered, it was sent to the British Museum under the care of a man named Richard Owen. As the University of Cambridge explains, Owen wrote a few papers about the skeleton and left it there. He tried not to bring it together or study it further and went on to everything that was next.
“For the past three years, Dr. David Norman of the Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences has been working to complete the work that Owen began, preparing a detailed description and biological analysis of the skeleton of Scelidosaurus, the original of which is stored in ‘ the Natural History Museum in London, along with other specimens in the Bristol City Museum and the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, ”the university said in a press release.
With years of additional research done, we now know that the animal was related to the ankylosaurs, which were covered with thick bony armor and sported tail with knuckles. In addition, the new effort has resulted in the skeleton that is finally being assembled for the first time since it was discovered.
“It is unfortunate that such an important dinosaur, discovered at such a critical time in the early study of dinosaurs, was never properly described,” said Drs. David Norman of Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences in a statement. ‘It has now – finally! – described in detail and provides many new and unexpected insights into the biology of early dinosaurs and their underlying relationships. It seems a shame that the work was not done sooner, but, as they say, better late than never. “
Mike Wehner has reported over the past decades on technology and video games, on curiosities and trends in VR, wearables, smartphones, and future tech. Most of the time, Mike served as Tech Editor at The Daily Dot, and was featured in USA Today, Time.com, and countless other web and print stores. His love of reporting is second only to his gaming addiction.
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