German Paleontologists Find a 'Near-Perfect' Dinosaur Fossil

First time accepted submitter howzit writes "German paleontologists have discovered what they believe is the best-preserved dinosaur skeleton ever found. The flesh-eating member of the theropod subgroup, which walked on its hind legs, is about 98 percent complete, and also includes preserved bits of skin. 'The around 135-million-year-old fossil is of outstanding scientific importance.'"

Re:Uhmmm... presvered skin?

[Anonymous Coward]

People loan such finds to museums rather than donating outright so that they retain some control over how the find is maintained, displayed, and so on. If the museum does a poor job of maintaining the fossil or puts it in some back closet where the public can't see it, one would like to be able to take it back and loan it to a museum that will treat it better.

Re:Bone Parts?

[ld a,b]

The arms in theropods are like avian wings in that for most species they are in a rigid clapping position. There was a Slashdot article about this some time ago. Actually clapping doesn't quite describe it as you'll find ancient bird fossils have their claws facing forwards just like this one.
The "damaged" hip is actually one of the two main features used to tell a theropod away from other dinosaurs. The theropods ischium is facing backwards, while their illium faces forwards. This is the ancestral configuration, although it was secondarily lost in the species most closely related to birds, which have *both* facing backwards,
Plant-eating Ornithischia, like the Triceratops, on the other hand, evolved that "new" hip configuration much earlier.