WINONA, Minn. — In anticipation of an exceptionally rare “dinosaur mummy” for display at Winona State next year, the university’s geoscientists have scheduled a public seminar Monday. The subject is an Edmontosaurus that a Winona State team unearthed in western North Dakota last summer. Seminar: 4 p.m. at the Science Lab building. The remains have been carefully prepared and studied and ultimately will be on display at Winona State for students, researchers, and the community to experience firsthand, said prof Lee Beatty, the excavation team leader. Although 66 million years old, the remains include remarkably preserved skin and soft tissue, Beatty said: “The animal was buried quickly in conditions that limited decay and promoted mineralization of soft tissue.” The remains, encased in sandstone, show extraordinary detail that provides a clearer picture of what dinosaurs looked like in life, Beatty said. Only a handful of such fossils have ever been discovered worldwide, he said: “They are highly valuable for research, offering unique insights into dinosaur biology, evolution.”
Edmontosaurus. A herbivorous dinosaur up to 39 feet long and weighing six tons. Bone beds have been found from Colorado to Alaska, which once were subtropical coastal plains.
Digging carefully. Brushing even more carefully. And posing. The Winona State excavation team students and grads. Their discovery, in the western North Dakota badlands, was in the massive Hell Creek formation that spans portions of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas.
Beatty profile
Lee Beatty has been at Winona State since 2008. He holds an earth science degree from Penn State and a doctorate in geology from the University of Pittsburgh. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the U.S. National Energy Technology Laboratory. Since 2013 he has led paleontology digs in North Dakota’s Hell Creek formation.