Michael Havis
The partially-preserved corpse was discovered by an electrician cleaning out a sub-station that had been left untouched for 35 years.
It resembles a small dinosaur, but since flightless dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years, scientists have struggled to identify it.
The creature – which was found in Jaspur, a small city in Uttarakhand, India – has now been sent for analysis, including carbon dating, that will reveal its age.
Dr Parag Madhukar Dhakate, a Conservator with the Indian Forest Service, said the creature would remain an enigma until scientific analysis had been completed.
He said: “It looks like a dinosaur, but we can't say anything until all the tests are done.”
Aaryan Kumar, who is pursuing a PhD in Paleontology from Delhi University, told local media that it was impossible for a dinosaur skeleton to be so well preserved after so long.
He said: "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.
Michael Havis
“It looks like a dinosaur, but we can't say anything until all the tests are done”
Dr Parag Madhukar Dhakate
“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?"
The Deinonychus, the Coelophysis and the Dromaeosaurus are among the dinos that resemble the shape of the 28cm-long creature.
Michael Havis
Michael Havis
They’re all types of theropods, a suborder of dinosaurs that range in size from the mighty T Rex to the tiny Anchiornis.
Dr Dhakate said the specimen had now been sent to Dr Bahadur Kotlia, a paleontologist at Kumaun University, for historical analysis.
One initial suggestion is that it could be a genetically distorted animal foetus from within the goat family, but for now the mystery remains unsolved.