The animal was between eight and ten years old at the time of its death, according to initial analyses.
Keystone-SDA
An excavation team at the Dinosaur Museum in Aathal, canton Zurich, has uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved juvenile dinosaur skull in a boulder brought back from the US. Nicknamed Lucy, this fossil is one of the most complete in the world for this species.
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The fossil comes from Wyoming, where the Zurich museum operates an excavation site in a quarry, it explained in a press release on Monday. The remains, which are around 150 million years old, were extracted from Jurassic rock layers in a geological formation known as the Morrison Formation.
The precious fossil will go on public display for the first time at the Aathal museum on Friday. The boulder containing what appeared to be skull fragments arrived in Switzerland two years ago, but its contents were only revealed at the beginning of this year.
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Long-necked herbivore
Alongside the fragments, the characteristic flash of shovel-shaped teeth identified the species Camarasaurus, a long-necked herbivorous dinosaur. During the subsequent preparation work, the researchers noted just how well preserved the skull was.
The extreme fragility of sauropod skulls, whose bones are very thin to lighten the weight borne by their long necks, makes their complete conservation exceptional, the museum points out. Quoted in the press release, Emanuel Tschopp, an expert from the Free University of Berlin, describes the discovery as extremely rare: according to him, only one skull of this size has ever been found in the United States.
The animal preserved at Aathal was between eight and ten years old at the time of its death, according to initial analyses by the excavation team. The teeth are particularly interesting for research: they could provide clues about the diet of young sauropods, their migratory movements and even their body temperature.
The specimen was given the nickname Lucy in reference to the daughter of the director of the Zurich museum, who was responsible for the excavations. These individual names, which have nothing to do with scientific nomenclature, are common in palaeontology to distinguish discoveries.
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Adapted from French by AI/ts
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