One of the most momentous discoveries in palaeontology was made in 2003 when a 67 million year-old dinosaur "mummy" was unearthed in the spectacular badlands of North Dakota in America. Mummified dinosaurs are extremely rare. Only a handful have been discovered and none with as much potential to revolutionise our knowledge of dinosaurs.
The body of this mummified dinosaur, named Dakota, was exceptionally well preserved. Its skin, tendons, ligaments and potential bodily organs were found inside this three-dimensional giant fossil, therefore making it one of the rarest and most intact dinosaurs ever found. Dakota's discovery brought researchers as close as they had ever come to working on an actual dinosaur.
The film follows the extraordinary process of excavating the mummy, the analysis from one of the largest CT scans ever taken and the potentially ground-breaking results of the scientific investigation.
The Dinosaur Mummy illustrates the findings of the team with CGI simulations of the dinosaur's movement and appearance, bringing Dakota to life and exploring the exceptional circumstances of its death and how it came to be mummified millions of years ago.
The film charts Dakota's discovery which began when 16-year old Tyler Lyson, an American student came across two spinal bones sticking out of the earth on his uncle's land in 1999. Initially, he assumed he had come across a tail of a dinosaur, but four years later when he returned to the site to begin the excavation he and his group of volunteers uncovered more than they could have ever hoped for.
After seeing pictures of the dinosaur during the excavation, Dr Phil Manning, Palaeontology Lecturer at the University of Manchester, put together a team of UK-based scientists to get involved with the investigation. At the end of a two-year dig, Dakota was taken from its tomb to the Black Hills Institute in the United States where they concluded it was a duck-billed Hadrosaur.
Skin and muscle mass were analysed in order to re-create its appearance and movement. Advanced technological equipment, usually used on aircraft and NASA spacecrafts, performed one of the largest CT scans ever, on the 3,600 kilogram Hadrosaur. Seeing inside this phenomenal specimen would demonstrate the extent to which our theories of dinosaurs could change. From the examination of the dinosaur mummy, these findings potentially make Dakota one of the significant discoveries in palaeontology.
Even the tiniest piece of fossil offers a precious glimpse at dinosaurs' lives and enough evidence to develop our knowledge about these fascinating creatures. This ancient dinosaur mummy, however, opens up a whole new level of investigation into the pre-historic world and could be one of the most important relics discovered in recent times.
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