It’s not often that you come across a dinosaur fossil by chance, but three children have discovered one that could help deepen scientific understanding of the ancient kings of beasts.
Brothers Jessin and Liam Fisher and their cousin Kaiden Madsen discovered the unusual juvenile fish. Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil. It was discovered on July 31, 2022 while wandering through the famous Hell Creek Formation in North Dakota. The young dinosaur they found was probably between 13 and 15 years old when it died.
“It’s a kid’s dream, and a scientist’s dream too, to find the key piece. Tyrannosaurus Rex,”It’s a very interesting story,” says David Wilcots, a paleontologist who volunteers at the Academy of Natural Sciences, a branch of Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“We were speechless,” recalled Kaiden, who was 9 years old when he and his cousins ​​found the fossil.
This discovery was made by scientists T. rex. “It matured,” says paleontologist Tyler Lyson of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Colorado.
Liam, who was 7 at the time, found the dinosaur leg bone while hiking with his sons Kaiden and Jessin and their father. The family took photos of the bone and sent them to Lyson, who organized an expedition to dig up the fossil in 2023, almost a year later.
On the first day of excavation, Lyson and the boys found a dinosaur’s mandible and some teeth. T. rex.
The team also unearthed the tibia the boys first found, which was 82 centimetres (32 inches) long. Comparing it to an adult tibia showed that it belonged to a “teen rex.” T. rex It was about 112 centimetres (44 inches) long, and so far the team has found parts of its shins and jaw, as well as parts of its skull and tailbone.
But research on this fossil isn’t over yet: Although the expedition dug the fossil out of the ground, they left it trapped in the rock, where it will be stored safely until museum staff can remove it and preserve it.
Watch fossil cleanup live
Teen T. rex The fossil and surrounding rocks are currently being stored at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, where workers will be able to examine the fossil more closely once they finish removing the rocks.
If you’re in Denver, you can see this in action as scientists prepare the fossils for public display inside the museum, where the “Teen Rex Prep Lab” opens this week.
The collectors are actively involved in the research. “Preparing fossils in public makes paleontology feel more real,” explains Miria Pérez. “I think it’s really important to be able to display them.” Pérez is a collector at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the teens’ research. T. rex project.
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For scientists, working in front of the public is fun, Pérez noted: “When I’m working behind the windows, I see people pointing and excited looks on their faces, so it’s really great to be able to make these discoveries together with the public.”
Natalie Toth, chief fossil examiner at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, said it will probably take about a year to excavate all the fossils from the rocks.
For Jaesin, the discovery further fueled his desire to become a paleontologist: “It’s been my lifelong dream,” he says.
A film crew accompanied the research crew to the dig site. Check out the trailer for their documentary about the young people. T. rex The film will be shown in over 100 museum cinemas around the world starting June 21st.
Source: www.snexplores.org
