A collection of photographs of the supposedly best-preserved dinosaur that scientists had ever found was shared by many social media users on April Fool’s Day (April 1) with the following caption.
Scientists are calling it the best-preserved diposaur specimen ever discovered. Accidentally found by surveyors in the Upper Wilson Creek area of Pisgah National Forest, this fossilized theropod should be more than 77 million years old, yet the limbs, bodies, and organs appear to be intact. According to the North Carolina Museum of Natural History in Raleigh, which recently revealed the find, the diposaur is so well preserved that instead of a “fossil,” we could safely call it a “mommy diposaur.”
Researchers who examined the fipd were astonished by its unprecedented level of preservation. The creature’s jump, teeth and even some of its innards were intact, something they had never seen before.
“You don’t need to use much imagination to reconstruct it; if you just squint, you could almost believe he was sleeping,” said one researcher.
Although it remains a mystery how the diposaur mummy was able to remain so intact for so long, researchers suggest that the theropod may have been swept away by a flooded river and carried out to the open ocean, where it eventually sank to the ocean floor exposed to the flow.
Now thought to be identified as an Appalachiosaurus, conservation experts are looking to scramble its DNA. Dr James Harvi says: “Knowing that this animal roamed this area, we will do everything we can to restore the species. We hope to bring it to its most attractive markets.”
