Duckbill Dinosaur Mummies!

Duck-billed dinosaur “mummies” with a crest, tail spikes…and hooves?! 🦆🦖🦶
This video breaks down a new study on Edmontosaurus annectens that reports a fleshy midline crest from neck to trunk, an interdigitating spike row along the hips and tail, and wedge-shaped hooves on the hind toes, plus a single hoof on the hand. Sereno et al. 2025 also propose a fresh taphonomic model: these spectacular soft-tissue shapes weren’t preserved as skin, but as an ultra-thin (less than1 mm) clay template that formed on the carcass during early decay and rapid burial. That isn't talked about in this video, but we thought you might want that extra piece of info!

What’s inside
Two newly described Edmontosaurus “mummies” from the Lance Formation (Wyoming), alongside classic AMNH and Senckenberg specimens from the same local “mummy zone.”

A banded, fleshy neck-to-trunk crest that transitions over the hips into a one-spine-per-vertebra interdigitating spike row extending to the tail tip.

Hooves: broad keratinous sheaths around the hind-foot unguals (II–IV) and a single hoof on the third manual digit! The hind feet are subunguligrade, and the forefeet are unguligrade.

Digital pads and footprint matches that refine how hadrosaur feet worked in life.

“Clay-template mummification”: kaolinite/illite film forming a 3D “mask” of skin, spikes, and hooves; bone is permineralized, but the integument is a delicate clay layer. Again, not talked about in the video, but while I'm typing :-).

Environmental story: repeated drought–flood cycles and rapid subsidence at the basin’s coastal edge likely created a preservational sweet spot, the dinosaur “mummy zone” in Wyoming, where a mummified Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops also came from!

Why it matters
Revises common life restorations of hadrosaur backs and tails (crest + interdigitating spikes tied to caudal and mid-sacral vertebrae only).

The authors interpret their mummies as having the oldest hooves in any tetrapod, the first hooves in a reptile, and the first known hooved biped with different fore/hind postures.

Expands where clay-templating can occur (not just anoxic lakes/seas) to include coarse fluvial settings. A future video? Probably not :-).

How they tested it
Micro-CT, clinical CT, thin sections, SEM/EDS, XRD, and high-res photogrammetry to show the clay film, lack of organics in the template, and tight 3D correspondence between integument renderings and underlying anatomy.

Data & resources
3D models and CT datasets exist on Morphosource

Authors: Paul C. Sereno, Evan T. Saitta, Daniel Vidal, Nathan Myhrvold, María Ciudad Real, Stephanie L. Baumgart, Lauren L. Bop, Tyler M. Keillor, Marcus Eriksen, Kraig Derstler

Suggested citation (video description):
Sereno et al. 2025: “Duck-billed dinosaur fleshy midline and hooves reveal terrestrial clay-template ‘mummification’.”

If you enjoyed this deep dive into hadrosaur soft tissues and taphonomy, hit like/subscribe and tell us which feature surprised you most: the crest, the spikes, or the hooves!

#FossilCrates #Paleontology #Dinosaurs #Edmontosaurus #Hadrosaur #Fossils #Taphonomy #DinosaurMummy #LanceFormation #Wyoming #CTscan #ScienceExplained
00:00 Introduction
00:12 Mummy Paper Drops!
01:13 Stop Drawing Spikes Forward of the Middle of the Hips!
02:45 Hooves
03:01 Ed Jr.
03:40 Fleshy Crests
04:13 Fleshy Cap
04:50 Hooves in More Detail
06:09 Edmontosaurus Through Time
07:22 Other Hadrosaurs
09:45 Closest Modern Animal Analog
10:25 Integument

Видео Duckbill Dinosaur Mummies! канала Fossil Crates