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Scientists Stumped By Mummified 'Dinosaur' Corpse Found In A Substation

Scientists Stumped By Mummified 'Dinosaur' Corpse Found In A Substation

An electrician in Jaipur, India found the crinkled-up corpse while he was cleaning out a substation which had been abandoned for 35 years.

Chris Ogden

Chris Ogden

As much as you'd think you'd like to see a dinosaur in the flesh, Jurassic Park shows us how that would probably end up. Still, actually finding one which isn't just bones by now would still be pretty incredible.

That's why scientists have been left so baffled after some bloke found the preserved body of a creature which looks suspiciously like a dinosaur.

Credit: PEN News

An electrician stumbled upon the crinkled-up corpse while he was cleaning out a sub-station which had been abandoned for 35 years, reports the Mail Online. The discovery was made in Jaspur, a small city in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.

We have to say, the 28cm-long corpse definitely looks like a little dinosaur. But seeing as flightless dinosaurs have been extinct for a small matter of, ooh, 65 million years, how can that be possible, and why would it be in a substation?

Scientists have now sent the corpse for a number of tests including carbon dating which will hopefully shed light on how old the creature actually is. The analysis will be conducted by Dr Bahadur Kotlia, a paleontologist at Kumaun University.

Dr Parag Madhukar Dhukate, a conservator for the Indian Forest Service, was stumped by the find. He explained that the true nature of the creature would be a mystery until analysis is complete.

"It looks like a dinosaur, but we can't say anything until all the tests are done," he said.

Aaryan Kumar, a paleontologist at Delhi University, explained that it's highly unlikely that a dinosaur skeleton would be so well-preserved without prior human intervention.

"Non-avian dinosaurs have been extinct for the past 65 million years but it does resemble theropods, a suborder of dinosaurs which included bipedal carnivores," Kumar admitted.

"But a dinosaur skeleton could not have been found in such a well-preserved condition after millions of years without it being in a fossilized state.

"The only even slightly possible way is it was chemically preserved to store it in a museum. But if that was the case, how did it end up here?" How, indeed?

Two Coelophysis exhibits in Ernzen, Germany. Credit: PA

Particular types of dinosaur it is said to resemble include the deinonychus, the coelophysis and the dromaeosaurus.

A more feasible explanation for the creature is that it is actually the skeleton of a small mammal. Until the results of those tests are back though, keep an eye on your nearest substation. There may well be dinos inside.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Science, Dinosaur, Dinosaurs, Interesting, Technology, Animals, India