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from the probably-make-a-nice-pair-of-boots dept.
Paleontologists are used to finding dinosaur bones and tracks. But remnants of soft tissue, like muscles or skin, are rare and often not well preserved. A very small percentage of tracks – much less than 1% – show skin traces [i.e. impressions].
Kyung-Soo Kim, Ph.D., of Chinju National University of Education recently found a set of very small tracks with perfect skin traces near Jinju City, Korea. CU Denver Professor Emeritus of Geology Martin Lockley, Ph.D., – with Kim, Jong Deock Lim of Korea and Lida Xing of Beijing – wrote a paper about the skin traces for the journal Scientific Reports. They described the skin as "exquisitely preserved."
"The skin traces come from tracks of the smallest known theropod, the Minisauripus."
[Editorial update - clarifying that "skin traces" means "impressions of skin", rather than "traces of skin" - thanks to poster below. --FP.]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @12:57PM (9 children)
Not skin.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday April 10 2019, @01:26PM (2 children)
Damn, just when I thought I could get nice Jurassic Park boots...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @01:51PM
technically alligator skin hasn't changed that much since before the Jurassic. or you could use fish skins, those are even older.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday April 10 2019, @05:37PM
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday April 10 2019, @03:09PM (5 children)
It just gets worse and worse. The title makes me think that some super-annuated predecessor to mankind skinned a saurian, tanned the hide, and stowed it in a nice, dry cave. TFS disillusions us, with the idea of microscopic bits of skin inside of dino-tracks. Now - it's just impressions of skin? As in - you can't even hope to get any DNA from it?
Seems a complete non-story clickbait thing, doesn't it?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 10 2019, @08:02PM (4 children)
As a compensation, you get to confirm that dinos weren't completely covered in feathers or exoskeletons.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @10:16PM (3 children)
... on their feet. Their feet aren't completely covered in feathers. Are there even any birds with feathers on their feet?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 10 2019, @10:23PM (1 child)
After the asteroid set half the world on fire, natural selection happened, and all feathered-feet dinos and birds died off while the bare-feet ones survived.
Prove me wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 11 2019, @03:40AM
"asteroid"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Osamabobama on Wednesday April 10 2019, @11:15PM
It would seem so: Story about pigeons [utah.edu]
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @04:23PM (1 child)
Turns out it was a Niggasaurus
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @10:25PM
What is wrong with stupid mods on this site? It's actually Nigersaurus [wikipedia.org] so the spelling was a bit off.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday April 10 2019, @10:25PM
Just leftovers from lil' Kim's shedding cycle.