by the elements. The soft tissue must then be mineralized before it decomposes. Finally, as with all fossils, the mineralized body must escape destruction by geological forces over millions of years. News reports have referred to Dakota as "mummified"; however, it is actually a fossil of a mummified dinosaur, where the animal's dried tissues have been transformed to rock through fossilization. Stephanie K. Drumheller and team in 2022 proposed that Dakota was exceptionally preserved because of several identified scavenging marks to the carcass, which helped to escape the gases, fluids, and microbes that develop during decomposition. This may have likely allowed soft tissues to withstand the weeks and/or months required for desiccation prior to burial and eventual fossilization. See also Timeline of hadrosaur research Edmontosaurus mummy AMNH 5060 Edmontosaurus mummy SMF R 4036 Dueling Dinosaurs References External links 1999 in paleontology Cretaceous fossil record Dinosaur fossils Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of North America Paleontology in North Dakota Saurolophines