Some 67 million years ago, in what is now known as Slope County, North Dakota, an adolescent duck-billed dinosaur was killed and chewed up by various predators and scavengers. The Edmontosaurus left behind an impressive fossil nicknamed Dakota the Dinomummy, so called because unlike most dinosaur fossils, which are mostly bones or teeth, this one has exceptionally preserved skin.
In the nearly two decades since Dakota was discovered in the Hell Creek Formation, one of the most studied and fossil-rich regions on Earth, paleontologists have been trying to solve the mystery of how it died and became so well preserved. A recent analysis of the fossil in the journal PLOS ONE not only lends new insight into how it formed, but suggests that dinosaur "mummies" are far more common than previously thought.
