Aguttes link: https://www.aguttes.com/?&setLng=en
Nicknamed ‘Skinny’ the Diplodocus skeleton shows important and significant impressions of the skin of the dinosaur, which has never been discovered in such quantities before on a Diplodocus, making this a uniquely valuable skeleton – a world first. It was discovered in shale beds in Wyoming USA in 2012. It has been erected at the airport using a ground breaking new technology developed by Paleomoove of Marseille. It took three nights to erect the dinosaur which has almost 90% of its bones.
Delicately packaged and shipped to Paleomoove Paleontological Preparation Laboratory, in France the sedimentary blocks containing Skinny have spent the last 12 months, some 3000 hours, in the hands of experts to clear the bones, skin prints in a revolutionary method. Millimeter by millimeter, grain-by-grain, the chief fossil scientist on this project and his team, cleared the skin and bones.
For a paleontologist, finding dinosaur skin is the most exciting discovery. “Having such a level of fossilization is as rare as winning the UK lotto. The Skinny dinosaur was probably buried very quickly which has preserved the skin to a significant degree,” says Eric Mickeler who has led the preservation and research into this diplodocus cousin.
Diplodocus walked the earth in the Late Jurassic some 155-145 million years ago andwas a vegetarian dinosaur species with a very long neck, allowing it to feed both high and low. The species is the mascot of the British Museum which has a Diplodocus cast known as ‘Dippy’ whose 292 bones are cleaned every two years.
It was huge, tipping the scales at 20,000 kg, feeding on leaves and other soft vegetation using rows of comb-like teeth.
This totally unique dinosaur skeleton is presented in a revolutionary way as a contemporary work of art, but respects all the scientific criteria of preparation and reconstruction. It will be possible to change its initial position a little and to make it take another stance thanks to the great interpretation capabilities of the French company, Paleoomove Laboratory, based in Marseille which specializes in the articulation of dinosaur skeletons.
Eric Mickeler, International expert in Natural History, and a specialist in dinosaurs is also a special advisor to Aguttes Auction house, says: “This exceptional skeleton is from a cousin of the Diplodocus. As an original skeleton it is quite remarkable. It is currently the only Diplodocus dinosaur in the world to carry such a large area of its skin: it is therefore a world first.”
A simple observation shows that Skinny’s skin, the unknown dipodocidae, Heathrow’s new star, was covered with tiny scales of a few millimeters each. Unlike the lizard or snake, Skinny’s scales did not overlap. If we had touched this dinosaur, the sensation would probably not have been that of a smooth skin, but a rather uneven surface.
Skinny offered researchers samples from several areas of the body of a diplodocidae but not the full suit’ They are researching the possibility that this dinosaur might have had some feathers in some parts of his body or not.
For more than a century, paleontologists were forced to imagine the appearance of dinosaurs, having found only their bones. Thus, based on the image of contemporary reptiles, the researchers imagined dinosaurs with thick skin and dark color, adopting brown and green tones (like crocodiles and lizards), or completely gray.
Eric Mickeler says: “It was very difficult to imagine what a dinosaur looks like by looking only at its skeleton (especially with the limited scientific means of the nineteenth century). Imagine trhing to imagine what a duck or swan without feather and without beak would look like? A cat or a rabbit, without fur, without ears or snout? In the same vein, how do you imagine the layer of fat covering certain animals, such as hippos or whales? Or the crest of cockerels and turkeys? Or the elephant’s trunk?”
The past 30 years have have witnessed a renaissance of dinosaurs to whom we now lend colors, feathers or proto feathers. Therefore it might emerge that Skinny had a colored skin. In the past it was impossible to know the skin color of the dinosaurs (the pigmentation is not preserved in the fossil state), new scientific procedures have been experimented on the remains of the feathered dinosaurs found in China.
FOR MORE PRESS INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Julian Roup on 0044 (0)7970563958 or 01892 669200 email at [email protected]
or the Heathrow Press Office at [email protected]
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
For more information on the dinosaur exhibited at Heathrow, which will be auctioned in France in June 2019, please contact the dinsaur expert, Mr. Eric Mickeler, well-known consultant of international sales of dinosaurs.
Tel0033 6 72 74 71 42
Email [email protected]
ABOUT AGUTTES AUCTION HOUSE
AGUTTES is the first independent auction house in France (without external shareholders) and was ranked as the fourth largest auction house in the French market in 2018. Founded by Claude Aguttes in 1974, the company holds 80 auctions per year with a team of 40. AGUTTES is also a major actor at Drouot in Paris, where it achieved the highest sale records in 2015, 2017 and 2018. In 2017, the auction house was chosen by the French Commercial Court to organize the sale of the tremendous Aristophil Collections of Rare Books and Manuscripts. In June 2018, AGUTTES reached a world record by selling a new carnivorous dinosaur species for more than 2 million euros at the Eiffel Tower. In 2019, the company opened a new sales representative office in Brussels and completed significant renovations in its saleroom in Lyon – the former train station of Brotteaux – whichwill allow new events to be created.