A team of archaeologists have discovered the fossilised remains of a 72 million-year-old dinosaur tail in a desert in northern Mexico, it has been announced.
The ‘unusually well-preserved’ five yard-long tail was the first ever found in Mexico, said Francisco Aguilar, director of the country’s National Insтιтute for Anthropology and History.
The team, made up of archaeologists and students from INAH and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, identified the fossil as a hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur.
Relic: The researchers found the ancient dinosaur tail in Coahuila State in Mexico
The ‘unusually well-preserved’ five yard-long tail was the first ever found in Mexico. It is 72 million years old
The tail, found near the small town of General Cepeda found in the border state of Coahuila, likely made up half the dinosaur’s length, Aguilar said.
Archaeologists found the 50 vertebrae of the tail completely intact after spending 20 days in the desert slowly lifting a sedimentary rock covering the creature’s bones.
Strewn around the tail were other fossilised bones, including one of the dinosaur’s hips, INAH said.
Precision: Archaeologists painstakingly excavate the tail
Speaker for the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ: The tail, from a hadrosaur, will enable experts to learn about bone conditions that affected the colossal beasts
Despite Mexico’s rich heritage in paleontology, this is the first dinosaur tail found in the country
Strewn around the tail were other fossilised bones, including one of the dinosaur’s hips
