Dinosaur fossil with skin excavated

In a quarry in Northern USA, palaeontologists have made an epoch-making discovery: an almost intact fossil of an unknown dinosaur species.

So far, scientists have managed to excavate the creature’s skull and tail – the rest remains embedded in a 15 tonne rock and will take several years to "free". The fossil is so well- preserved that skin, keratin, and soft bone parts such as the dinosaur’s armour have been preserved in the rock. The herbivorous dinosaur lived in what is now Montana some 75 million years ago. The new species, which has been named Zuul crurivastator, is an ankylosaurus, which is known to have a club-like tail. Zuul is from the Ghostbusters film, which includes a monster resembling the fossil. Crurivastator means “crusher of shins”, referring to the 3-m-long tail.

The well-preserved dinosaur was 6 m long and weighed about 2,500 kg – the same as a large rhino.