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An “exquisitely” preserved fossil that lived 125 million years ago shows evidence of the navel in at least some dinosaurs.
Laser image of the bipedal Psittacosaurus showing umbilical scar and scales. Photo by Bell et al., BMC Biology, 2022
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An “exquisitely” preserved dinosaur fossil revealed the soft belly of a horned dinosaur from China. In particular, paleontologists using high-tech laser imaging technology have found evidence of a dinosaur that lived 125 million years ago and carried a navel.
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“We call this type of navel scar, and in humans it is smaller. This specimen is the first dinosaur fossil to preserve the navel, due to its exceptional state of preservation, “said Michael Pitman, one of the study’s authors and paleontologists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The size, smoothness and location of the umbilical cord scar preclude trauma or infection as the cause, the study said. The abdominal scales pattern was continuous, while the healed injury would have “smooth connective tissue without scales on the open wound,” the authors note.
Psittacosaurus (a name meaning “parrot lizard”) is a two-meter-long herbivore with a beak that lived in the Early Cretaceous. The fossils used in this study were made public in 2002 and led to great discoveries due to their extremely well-preserved condition, full of scales, horns and “long tails of bristles on the tail”, the researchers wrote.
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“This specimen of Psittacosaurus is perhaps the most important fossil we have to study dinosaur skin. But it continues to bring surprises that we can bring to life with new technologies such as laser imaging, “study lead author Phil R. Bell of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, told Phys.org.
Paleontologists have compared the length of the specimen to other Psittacosaurus to estimate its age as simply shy of sexual maturity, about 6 or 7 years. It is not clear whether the umbilical cord in dinosaurs lasts until adulthood.
The valuable specimen can be seen at the Zenkenberg Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.
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