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Sep 13, 2008 1:43 pm US/Central
UMD Professor Exposes Secrets Of Dinosaur Mummy
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) ―
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Arthur Aufderheide is a professor of pathology at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
UMD
Arthur Aufderheide usually works with mummies, not dinosaurs. But the day he spent studying the most complete dinosaur fossil ever discovered gave researchers some valuable insights.
Aufderheide, a professor of pathology at the University of Minnesota Duluth, took part in the research on Leonardo, a Brachylophosaurus, which was found in Malta, Mont., in 2001. It was first mummified and then fossilized, so it's made of stone with some original tissue probably present.
It's about 77 million years old, and it's the only dinosaur found that still has fossilized skin covering a large portion of its body, as well as other preserved internal parts, including the stomach and its contents: magnolias, ferns and conifers.
A documentary about Leonardo -- "Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy" -- debuts at 8 p.m. Sunday on the Discovery Channel.
Aufderheide is one of the leading experts in the field of paleopathology -- the study of ancient diseases -- and on the dissection of mummies. He works mainly with human bodies and had never seen a dinosaur until 2006, when he traveled to Malta -- about 30 miles from the Canadian border -- to help.
"I don't normally deal with that age group: millions of years," he said. "Nine thousand (years) is a lot for me."
Aufderheide suggested to the researchers there that the area where Leonardo was found might have been swampy, because chemicals called aldehydes normally found in swamps can prevent decay.
"They may have simply prevented the decay of internal organs long enough for them to become fossilized," Aufderheide said.
That theory was important because researchers have wondered from the beginning: "Why did nothing eat him? Why did his flesh and internal structures not rot away like virtually every other fossil ever found up until Leonardo?" said Joe Iacuzzo, project manager for the Leonardo Project in Las Vegas.
Aufderheide is modest about his contribution, but his ideas were important to researchers and supported another theory about how the dinosaurs of that period -- 12 million years before the end of the dinosaur age -- might have died.
David Eberth of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Canada has theorized that a massive extinction occurred when hurricanes, starting in what was then the Gulf of Mexico, traveled through a shallow ocean separating the eastern and western parts of North America, Iacuzzo said.
Because there was no land mass to stop them, the theory is that the hurricanes grew stronger and created storm surges, including in what is now Montana, causing massive flooding that would have killed everything, Iacuzzo said.
"Especially larger animals, who would have a hard time treading water or grabbing on to a small floating object and ride out the storm," he said. "That's one theory on why you find so many complete skeletons in that area."
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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