A team of Mexican paleontologists and students from National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) have unearthed fossilized remains of a 72-million-year-old full dinosaur tail in the northern desert of Coahuila state.
The institute said that the extraordinarily preserved tail with 50 vertebrae, measures 15 feet (5 meters) long and resembles a hadrosaur or crested duckbill dinosaur. Researchers said that these dinosaurs once dominated the regions of the North American continent, Europe and Asia.
Francisco Aguilar, INAH's director, said that the tail found near a small town of General Cepeda in the border state of Coahuila was well preserved as it was found completely intact. This is the first complete dinosaur tail to be discovered in Mexico.
Aguilar also said that the tail belonged to a dinosaur that was approximately 36 feet (12 meters) long.
According to the institute, finding an intact Dinosaur tail is extremely rare.
The excavation, in the municipality of General Cepeda in the northern state that borders Texas, took nearly three weeks. The fossil remains were uncovered from below a sedimentary rock. The paleontologists also found other fossilized bones, including the specimen's hip bones.
Initial reports of the dinosaur tail in Mexico were reported by locals in June 2012. First, the institute carried out an inspection and then started the process of excavating the partial skeleton earlier in July.
