Time for something a little bit lighter as Ike bears down on the coast. This sounds way cool.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science, in association with the Judith River Foundation, will develop and tour a world premiere exhibition featuring Leonardo, the most perfectly fossilized plant-eating dinosaur ever discovered–with almost all of his skin still intact. Dinosaur Mummy CSI: Cretaceous Science Investigation opens Sept. 19, 2008.
“Leonardo’s discovery was groundbreaking for the world of paleontology because it provided extensive detail regarding what plant-eating dinosaurs actually ate – details that could only be theorized before,” said Joel A. Bartsch, president of the Houston Museum of Natural Science. “We’re thrilled to present Leonardo to the public for the first time at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, where they can get up close and personal with the real Leonardo, the best preserved, plant-eating dinosaur mummy fossil ever discovered.”
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Leonardo is a 77 million-year-old adult duckbilled dinosaur, known scientifically as Brachylophosaurus canadensis. His remains are 90 percent covered with fossilized skin, on which the pattern of his body scales are evident. The term “mummy” is used in reference to Leonardo to denote the fact that much of the dinosaur’s soft tissue, such as its skin and internal organs, appear to have been fossilized as well, along with the bones.
What makes Leonardo even more extraordinary is that he has given scientists a rare peek “inside” a dinosaur. With modern technology, scientists have analyzed Leonardo using a forensic approach to studying this fossil–and the site where it was found–to determine how he may have lived and died. Using this method, the dinosaur is the “victim,” and the scientist has to figure out how it was killed, and by whom. Additional discoveries, such as stomach contents, provide a more complete picture of the ecosystem in which the dinosaur lived – as indicated by the type of plants it ate.
You can see some video previews of this here, including clips from a Discovery Channel special set to air on the 14th. Olivia is a big fan of dinosaurs – she has a dinosaur jigsaw puzzle that she loves to do (usually as a stalling tactic before bedtime, but still) and she can name most of your better known dinos. I’m thinking she’ll love this. And, you know, I’m pretty sure I will, too.