The North Dakota State Historical Society has agreed to give a grant of $3 million to the Marmarth Research Foundation in exchange for the right to a mummified hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur. Mummified hadrosaur costs North Dakota $3 million and it might seem steep, but it is one of the finest and most rare dinosaur specimens ever discovered.
The hadrosaur is partially intact and it gives a plethora of new information about this duck-billed dinosaur. For example, the dinosaur’s back is 25% larger than it was originally thought which makes it faster than the famous T.Rex. The skin of the mummified hadrosaur shows signs that it may have been stripped and not block colors as it was originally thought. The skin shows a camouflage-like pattern in some parts of the animal.
The dinosaur was discovered in 1999 by Tyler Lyson, a then 16-year-olf fossil hunter on his uncle’s farm. Lyson has went on to become a paleontologist with a degree from Yale and is still the owner of the mummified hadrosaur.
Now, mummified hadrosaur costs North Dakota $3 million, as the North Dakota State Historical Society will fund a grant of $3 million for mummified dinosaur, so that the Marmarth Research Foundation can keep the mummy of the dinosaur.
Lyson revealed that the money will fund more digs and a part will go in education and expanding the dinosaur collection in the state of North Dakota. This deal will also give Lyson and his team of scientists access to the laboratory where the mummified dinosaur is kept.
British paleontologist Doctor Phillip Manning reveals in a book he wrote about the hadrosaur:
The fossilized bones of the hadrosaur that Tyler discovered would allow the resurrection of many grave secrets locked in stone for more than 65 million years. The presence of rare soft-tissue structures would ensure that this fossil would become a member of a prehistoric elite – dinosaur mummies… Such remarkable fossils enable immense advances in our understanding of long-vanished lives and forgotten worlds
Mummified hadrosaur costs North Dakota $3 million, but its purchase will surely help the state find out more about hadrosaur and dinosaur mummification.