Borealopelta markmitchelli
It is one of the best-preserved large dinosaur fossils ever found and shows what an armoured dinosaur looked like in life.
Image: ケラトプスユウタ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Borealopelta was an armoured plant-eater of the nodosaurid family. The specimen is so exceptionally preserved that its armour plates are still in place, with remains of their horn sheaths, skin and even the last meal in its stomach. Traces of pigment point to a reddish-brown back with a lighter belly, suggesting that even this heavy animal relied on camouflage.
Forested coastal plains; after death the carcass drifted out to sea.
Millennium Mine near Fort McMurray, Alberta
Clearwater Formation
Cultural profile: Canada →Iconic fossilBorealopelta · TMP 2011.033.0001
Found in 2011 by equipment operator Shawn Funk
Millennium Mine near Fort McMurray, Alberta
Museum: Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller
This armoured dinosaur was discovered in an oil sands mine in 2011 and looks more like a statue than a skeleton: its armour, skin and even its stomach contents are preserved. Technician Mark Mitchell spent six years preparing it; the species is named after him.
Sources: Borealopelta