Tyler Lyson - Articles - Zimbio

A Look at a Dinosaur Mummy

Tue, 5 Dec 2007 10:50:00 GMT

posted by pradianto

Scientists Get Rare Glimpse of Life 65 Million Years Ago By NED POTTER Dec. 4, 2007

The world of 65 million years ago is filled with mystery, especially because scientists have little to go on but bones.
But buried in a remote corner of North Dakota was a remarkably well-preserved dinosaur with fossilized skin, ligaments and tendons. You can even see scales on its side. The specimen turned out to be a duck-billed plant eater called a hadrosaur.
Tyler Lyson, the young scientist who found the fossil, said, "The skin hadn't collapsed in around the bone, and at that point I knew that we had a 3-D dinosaur mummy. I was absolutely thrilled."
Lyson is currently pursuing his doctorate in paleontology at Yale University and founded the Marmarth Research Foundation, an organization dedicated to the excavation, preservation and study of dinosaurs. Why is it important to find one so complete? Because bones don't tell you what the animal really looked like. Imagine if you found elephant bones, but you'd never seen a living one.
Matt Lamanna of Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History said, "There's no skeletal indication, or at least very little skeletal indication of one of the most characteristic features of an elephant, the long trunk." The hadrosaur has now been analyzed by a giant CT scanner, which showed it had surprisingly large hindquarters. That means that it was probably very fast -- even able to outrun the notorious Tyrannosaurus rex.
Patterns in those scales also suggest the hadrosaur had stripes along its tail -- perhaps to blend with the foliage.
Phil Manning, the chief researcher of this project at the University of Manchester said, "This possibly indicates that we had almost a striped camouflage pattern on some parts of our animal, which is very exciting."
The scientists nicknamed their friend "Dakota." Lyson said it's yielding ancient secrets.

Workers Uncovering Mummified Dinosaur

Wed, 20 Mar 2008 05:29:00 GMT

posted by daryllorette
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking at a big greenish-black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all.

Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. It's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65-million-year-old rock tomb.

"This is the closest many people will ever get to seeing what large parts of a dinosaur actually looked like, in the flesh," said Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Manchester University in England, a member of the international team researching Dakota.

VIDEO: Dinosaur Mummy’s Meal Revealed

Tue, 9 Jul 2008 00:45:50 GMT

posted by dualmp
A fossilized dinosaur known as Leonardo has shed light on what Montana was like 77 million years ago—including what the duck-billed reptile ate. Watch the video at National Geographic

Welcome to our wikizine about scientist Tyler Lyson

Sun, 3 Dec 2007 18:52:44 GMT

posted by The_Zimbio_Team
Wikizines are interactive magazines that anyone can create or edit - and this one is called "Tyler Lyson". Here you can find fresh voices and respond in real time. Some members write articles about recent news and trends related to the wikizine's topic, others recount relevant personal stories or share their favorite pictures and video clips. Got an interesting idea or story to share with other members of this wikizine? Well, then put on your journalist's cap and add your own article!