preserved

A couple of specimens were so well preserved that the bones in the middle ear were clearly Weberian.

"If the site is preserved and acquired, the government will convert it into a public space, with one possible outcome being a heritage park," the statement said.

The fossil comes from the famous "Dueling Dinosaurs" discovery in Montana, which preserved two creatures locked in ancient combat -- a Triceratops and a smaller-bodied tyrannosaur.

Columbia State Historic Park is a preserved Gold Rush settlement that allows local and foreign tourists to try and strike it rich at the Matelot Gulch Mining Company.

This provided the first-ever evidence of heterozygosity -- two versions of a gene -- preserved in proteins that are 2 million years old.