Overview
- University of Chicago researchers report in Science detailed external anatomy of Edmontosaurus annectens from a mapped site in east-central Wyoming.
- Analyses show a wafer-thin clay layer formed by microbial activity preserved three-dimensional surface detail while original soft tissues decayed.
- The specimens indicate small body scales plus a midline fleshy crest that transitions into a row of tail spikes positioned over vertebrae.
- The feet were hoofed with flat bottoms comparable to a horse’s, which the team says represent the earliest hooves known in a land vertebrate and the first confirmed in a reptile.
- Fieldwork identified a localized “mummy zone” at the southern edge of the Hell Creek and Lance formations, including two new mummies, and the foot reconstruction closely matches an age-equivalent duckbill footprint in a Canadian museum.