Scientists have been left mystified after the body of a creature resembling a dinosaur was discovered with flesh still on its bones.
The partially-preserved corpse was discovered by an electrician cleaning out a sub-station that had been left untouched for 35 years in Jaspur, a small city in Uttarakhand, India.
It resembles a small dinosaur, but since flightless dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years, scientists have struggled to identify it.
The creature has now been sent for analysis, including carbon dating, which will reveal its age.
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Scientists have been left mystified after the body of a creature resembling a dinosaur was discovered with flesh still on its bones in India
Dr Parag Madhukar Dhakate, a Conservator with the Indian Forest Service, said that 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.
‘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 corpse was found at a sub-station that had been left untouched for 35 years in Jaspur, a small city in Uttarakhand, India. It resembles a small dinosaur, but since flightless dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years, scientists have struggled to identify it. Pictured above: A dakotaraptor as it might have appeared 66 million years ago
The Deinonychus, the Coelophysis and the Dromaeosaurus are among the dinos that resemble the shape of the 28cm-long creature.
They’re all types of theropods, a suborder of dinosaurs that ranges 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.
