It is said that the best discoveries are made by accident, which is exactly what happened in Western Canada a few years ago. The dinosaur remains are almost in mint condition, making this a very interesting discovery, as we can deduce a lot about the dinosaur’s life and eventual death by doing so.
The remains are about 110 million years old and apparently this dinosaur was one of the many that ended up being flooded to death by a river that swept into the open sea.
The reason for the perfect condition of the skeleton is the thick armor that surrounds it. It is covered from head to toe in tile-like plates and of course, a gray patina of fossilized skins.
Shawn Funk, a heavy equipment mechanic, made the discovery back in 2011, March 21st, expecting that to be just an average day of work.
This was done at the Millennium Mine around 17 miles north of Fort McMurray, Alberta by a company named Suncor. The armor of the dinosaur was so strong that the excavator couldn’t penetrate it with all its might.
Shawn mentioned that he is used to stumbling on animal remains, but he never expected to find a dinosaur in his career.
The dinosaur was a Nodosaur and the best of its kind. No other remnant of a Nodosaur was ever discovered in such good condition, which is mostly because the Nodosaur was buried alive, not consumed by another carnivore or anything of this sort.
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