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The Phipps Ranch Hadrosaur
The Phipps Ranch Hadrosaur
Screenshot from the videogame Prehistoric Kingdom
I am currently privileged to be under contract with Jason Phipps of Cowboy Dino Digs to excavate and prepare the partial skeleton of "Old Yeller" an Edmontosaurus annectens, uncovered on his private ranch near Jordan Montana. Recovered elements of this dinosaur skeleton include fifteen caudal (tail) vertebrae in various states of preservation, one partial sacral (or "hip" vertebra), a mostly complete right splenial (a part of the lower jaw), an eroded section of posterior rib, uncertain limb elements, and an isolated vertebra that may not belong to the same individual dinosaur.
I've taken to calling this dinosaur "Old Yeller" for a couple of reasons. Fastly is the fact that most of its bones are in a truly abysmal state of preservation, eroded as if they were laying out on the ground's surface for years before becoming buried and fossilized. The skeleton appears to have eroded from the ground tail-first, and many of the caudal vertebrae are so physically and chemically weathered that they can be severely damaged with merely the scratch of a fingernail. The second reason I've given this aging and rather decrepit dinosaur its name, is due to the caudal vertebrae taking on a yellowed appearance, thanks to UV exposure bleaching the naturally chocolate-brown bones.
Edmontosaurus annectens, (meaning "connected lizard from Edmonton"), was a very large duck-billed Hadrosaur from the very Latest Cretaceous period in North America. Fossils of this enormous herbivore have been found in rocks belonging to the Frenchmen, Hell Creek, and Lance formations, where they are among the most common dinosaurs. It was one of the main food sources for Tyrannosaurus rex, and Edmontosaurus have been found with healed bite marks, indicating that they sometimes managed to escape the tyrant king.
Edmontosaurus is among the largest and most well-known of the Hadrosauridae, a family that is often referred to as the “Duck-Billed” Dinosaurs. Hadrosaurs were perfectly adapted for chewing large quantities of vegetation, with thousands of teeth packed together in structures called “dental batteries”. Though they lacked the sort of defensive horns and spikes seen on other dinosaurs, hadrosaurs were by no means helpless, possessing great strength and living in herds tens of thousands strong.
Several specimens of Edmontosaurus are so well preserved that they include skin and keratin preserved in 3D, giving us a very good picture of what this animal looked like in life, from the crenelated ridge running down its back, to the bizarre hooves on its front feet.
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