'Stunningly preserved' dinosaur 'mummies' discovered in Wyoming have skin and hooves

Skeletons of duck-billed dinosaurs found more than 100 years ago are so well-preserved that they contain fleshy body parts of the extinct species embedded in thin layers of clay, scientists say. Specimens of Edmontosaurus annectens, known for their long skull that resembles a duck's bill, were found in eastern Wyoming in the early 1900s. Recent reexamination of those fossils by paleontologists at the University of Chicago revealed that the fossils do not contain just bones, but mummified body parts protected underneath a clay mask, according to a paper published last week in Science . Among the bones are "stunningly preserved" pieces of skin, spikes and hooves, the researchers said. The "fleshy" parts are not fossilized flesh but rather delicate clay molds formed by microbes as the animals