Dinosaur-Looking Animal Found With Flesh On Its Bones In India, And Scientists Are Puzzled

A 3D illustration of a dinosaur fossil in the sand
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Science

The corpse of an unidentified animal that looks eerily similar to a dinosaur has been found in Jaspur, a city in Uttarakhand, India. According to the Daily Mail, the animal was found by an electrician at a substation that had been left abandoned for close to forty years.

As the Daily Mail reports, scientists have been puzzled by the existence of this specimen and its resemblance to a flightless dinosaur. So, the body has been sent for examination and carbon dating, which will help to figure out how old the animal is.

Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.

One expert told the local media that it’s impossible for an actual body of a dinosaur to be so well preserved that there’s still flesh on the bones.

“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,” he said. “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.”

He added that there’s a way that it could have been chemically preserved for storage in a museum, but then the question of how it got to the substation remains.

The animal’s body is 28 centimeters long and closely resembles Deinonychus, the Coelophysis, or the Dromaeosaurus. These dinosaurs are all theropods, a sub-species that includes the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The University of California Museum of Paleontology describes theropods as terrestrial carnivores. They had hollow bones and sharp, curved teeth that were helpful for tearing flesh apart. They also had claws on their hands and their feet. Some studies have proven that modern-day birds are actually the descendants of small, non-flying theropods.

But the carcass found at the substation in India doesn’t look like a bird. Based on the photos the corpse actually kind of looks like a mini T Rex. The Daily Mail reports that some have suggested that it looks like a genetically distorted goat fetus.

As News Nation reports, the genetic identity of the mysterious animal will only be confirmed when conclusive findings from the tests come back.

The skeleton has been delivered to Dr. Bahadur Kotlia, a paleontologist at Kumaun University.

“It looks like a dinosaur, but we can’t say anything until all the tests are done,” said Dr. Parag Madhukar Dhakate, a conservator with the Indian Forest Service.