'I really want to touch it': U of A experts discover dinosaur skin fossils 'It's not like the skin of snakes or lizards where the scales overlap,' says paleontologist Scott Persons

From CBC

Members of an international research team, including paleontologists from the University of Alberta, know what it's like to touch a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Scott Persons, a paleontology fellow at the University of Alberta, and a team of international researchers have discovered the first record of skin samples from Tyrannosaurus rex, Albertosaurus and other tyrannosaurids dating back at least 60 million years.

"My first instinct when I saw the specimens was 'Oh my gosh, I really want to touch it,' " Persons said Tuesday.

"It was the fulfilment of my childhood dream."

Team Rex, as the research team is known, found fossilized samples of the scaly skin from what they believe were the necks, flanks and tails of tyrannosaurids. The fossils were found in Alberta, South Dakota and Mongolia.