Impressions of dinosaur skin from the Cretaceous Haman Formation in Korea

The occurrences and features of two specimens of fossil dinosaur skin from Cretaceous Haman Formation in South Korea, including a new type of skin texture (development of micropolygons within scales) are described here for the first time, and several types of sedimentological aberrations of inorganic origin that are similar in appearance to fossil skin and therefore have the potential to be misidentified as fossil skin. The features and origins of fossil dinosaur skin found in South Korea with those of a diverse range of geological aberration structures resembling fossil skin are also compared.It is interpreted that dry climate, the presence of torn skin, and episodic sheetflood on an alluvial plain were related with the preservation of the Haman skin fossils. The preservation condition of the Haman skin fossils suggests that sheetflood deposits on a floodplain to mudflat environment under dry climatic condition are potential candidates for dinosaur skins to be found. The results of this study not only provide additional information that is helpful in understanding dinosaur skin, but also are useful in discriminating between true fossil skin and enigmatic sedimentological aberration structures resembling skin.