PALEOVIDEOS

Leonardo, the mummy dinosaur: Too good to be true?

"Unbelieveable!"

"Too good to be true..."

"A dinosaur with its last meal meal still preserved inside its stomach.....no one could hope for that...."

Those were some of the skeptical comments heard by Dr. Robert Bakker, Curator at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, from distinguished colleagues in the dino-science word.

"I was unconvinced too....until I came up to Malta, Montana myself," says Bakker.

"One glance showed that all us PhD's were wrong. Leonardo the Dinosaur Mummy DOES have his gut contents superbly - beautifully - fossilized. At last, we know what the single most important family of dino-species ate."

Over the past four years, a talented crew of hi-tech, x-ray specialists have scanned and probed and computer-manipulated Leonardo, inventing new techniques. "Northing's the same anymore..." Bakker mused, "from now on...all us dino-hunters will search for bones on the outside AND the secrets on the inside."

Now, Leonardo has made his way down to Houston, for a very special exhibit, Dinosaur Mummy CSI: Cretaceous Science Investigation. In this second video in our ongoing series (check out the first video in the series at this link: blog.hmns.org/?p=633), Dr. Bakker explains the inner workings of Leonardo's species from The Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Malta, Montana.

Learn more: blog.hmns.org/?p=814

Mapping a dinosaur with Dr. Robert Bakker

We're excitedly counting down to the opening of Dinosaur Mummy CSI: Cretaceous Science Investigation, a world premiere exhibition being developed by the Houston Museum of Natural Science to showcase Leonardo, one of the most spectacular dinosaur mummies ever found - and the only herbivore discovered with preserved stomach contents.

Oh, yeah - it’s also covered over 90 percent of its body with skin impressions. Until someone develops a time machine, looking at Leonardo is the closest you can get to seeing a living dinosaur.

Until it opens Sept. 19 (and probably after that, too), we’ll be bringing you a series of behind-the-scenes videos of our paleontology department preparing for the exhibit - traveling to Montana, where Leonardo was discovered, working to prepare the fossils of another hadrosaur named Peanut and much more.

In our first video, Dr. Bakker, David Temple and several of our paleontology volunteers create a map of Peanut that will help them study the specimen as it was discovered - even after the fossils have all been removed and mounted.

Learn more:
Mapping - blog.hmns.org/?p=633
Leonardo - blog.hmns.org/?p=814

Prep Lab at Wyoming Dinosaur Center

The WDC has its own professional fossil preparation lab on site. For many of the Wayland Elementary students this was their favorite part of The Ultimate Field Trip.

FINDING DINOSAUR FOOTPRINTS (good english)

A search for dinosaur footprints in Burniston Bay, near Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England with Peter Robinson geology recorder for the Scarborough Field Naturalists Society.

Video Impressions - Sam Noble Natural History Museum

A video tour of the Sam Noble Natural History Museum, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK.

Images of the prehistoric and later collections set to the music of Mahler's 5th Symphony. Taped in July 2008, thanks to the very helpful staff at the Noble Museum.

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