Herrero & Farke, Hadrosaurid Dinosaur Skin Impressions PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology, 7(2) (2010)
© PalArch Foundation 1
HADROSAURID DINOSAUR SKIN IMPRESSIONS FROM
THE UPPER CRETACEOUS KAIPAROWITS FORMATION
OF SOUTHERN UTAH, USA
Lucia Herrero* & Andrew A. Farke**
* The Webb Schools, 1175 West Baseline Road, Claremont, CA 91711 USA
lucyherrero@yahoo.com
** Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, 1175 West Baseline Road, Claremont, CA
91711 USA
afarke@webb.org
Lucia Herrero & Andrew A. Farke. 2010. Hadrosaurid Dinosaur Skin Impression from
the Upper Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation of Southern Utah, USA. – Palarch’s Jour-
nal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 7(2) (2010), 1-7. ISSN 1567-2158. 7 pages + 1 igure.
Keywords: skin impressions, hadrosaur, Kaiparowits Formation
AbstrAct
Skin impressions from hadrosaurid dinosaurs are relatively common inds throughout
the Cretaceous Western Interior of North America. A recently discovered specimen from
the late Campanian-aged Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah is typical for hadro-
saurs, with randomly arranged polygonal tubercles averaging around 4 mm in length
and 3 mm in width. Based on the associated bones, these impressions likely originated
on the thorax of the animal. In contrast with most previously published inds, the skin is
not preserved in perfect articulation with the skeleton. This suggests a taphonomic mode
in which the skeleton and soft tissues were partially disarticulated prior to burial.
Introduction
The hadrosaurs, or ‘duck-billed’ dinosaurs, pres-
ent one of the best-known records of fossil skin
impressions for any dinosaur group. These im-
pressions range from small patches to entire
‘mummies,’ allowing conident reconstruction
of virtually the entire body’s surface texture (e.g.
Lull & Wright, 1942). To date, skin impressions
have been described and igured for lambeo-
saurine and hadrosaurine hadrosaurids from
throughout the Upper Cretaceous of western
North America, including the Almond Forma-
tion of Wyoming (Gates & Farke, 2009), Dino-
saur Park Formation of Alberta (Lambe, 1902;
1914a,b; Brown, 1916; Parks, 1920), Hell Creek
Formation of Montana (Horner, 1984; Wideman
& Lofgren, 2001), North Dakota (Manning et al.,