The tale of Mexico's largest dinosaur tail

(Image: PA/AP/INAH-Mauricio Marat)

No, this isn't a prop from a remake of Jurassic Park ? it is the elaborate, incredibly well-preserved tail of a dinosaur uncovered in northern Mexico ? the first articulated fossil tail to be found there.

Palaeontologists from Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute, who announced their find this week, believe it belonged to a hadrosaur, aka a duck-billed dinosaur.

Despite spending 72 million years in the ground, the tail's 50 vertebrae are still connected. At nearly 5 metres long, the tail is slightly less than half the length of its original owner.

For the past three weeks, researchers have been delicately brushing away the sand and gravel that covers the tail so as not to damage it. The tail is destined to be shifted in parts to a more appropriate laboratory setting, where it will be cleaned and studied further before being put together once again.

"The main significance of this discovery is the location," says Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum in London. "Relatively little is known about Mexican dinosaurs. This is the most spectacular of a series of recent finds that are helping to fill in a relatively empty area on the dinosaur map."

It's not the first time a hadrosaur has taken centre stage after turning up surprisingly intact. In 2002, a hadrosaur "mummy", complete with stomach contents, was found. The first dinosaur "blood" sample was extracted from the pristine leg bone of a hadrosaur in 2009.

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