Meet Leonardo, the dinosaur mummy

2009.03.12

Houston Science Museum had a dinosaur exhibit

A 77-million-year-old dinosaur mummy, dubbed Leonardo by his finders (for some nearby graffiti), was found in July 2000 in Montana.

Here are the facts about the dinosaur and its death and "mummification":

--it was a young Brachylophosaurus (a two-legged, plant-eating duck-billed dinosaur). Approximately 3 or 4 years old when it died, this Brachylophosaurus is the first child of this species to have been discovered. It is also the best preserved fossilized dinosaur found in the last 70 years (according to a report in USA Today). The dinosaur would have been 20 feet long at the time of its death and weighed about 2,000 pounds.

--scientists aren't sure but they suspect the youngster became trapped on a sandbar and dried out before it was covered in sand.

--over the centuries and millennia, the dinosaur became fossilized and turned into a 6-and-one-half ton piece of sandstone.

--most amazingly, 80 percent of its skin and muscles are intact. Scientists can even see the remains of its last meal (a half-digested wad of 40 types of ferns and evergreen wood).