The Dinohunters

A History of Dinosaur Hunting and Reconstruction

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The Trachodon Mummy 1908

In 1908 Charles H. Sternberg and his sons, working in Converse County, Wyoming, made one of the most famous finds in dinosaur hunting - the Trachodon mummy (Trachodon annectens).

Impressions of dinosaurs were not new, but what made this specimen so special was that the skin was almost completely preserved, together with some muscles, and virtually the whole skeleton.   The mummy was bought by the American Museum of Natural History.

dinosaur image

Trachodon restoration by Henry Osborn 1912, depicting a skin covered in tubercles

The mummy was extensively analysed by Henry F. Osborn in 1912, and he published several photographs including detail of the skin, together with 2 restorations of Trachodon.   Osborn speculated that Trachodon may well have had a pronounced skin colour.

Trachodon restoration by Charles Knight, c.1912, depicts one creature in bipedal position and second in quadrupedal position.