In the summer of 2022, two boys were hiking in the North Dakota wilderness with their father and their 9-year-old cousin when they came across a large bone protruding from a rock. The boys had no idea what it was.
The father took some photos and sent them to a paleontologist friend, after which the relatives learned they had made an astonishing discovery: they had stumbled upon the skeleton of a rare juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex.
Part of the fossil is about 32 inches long and is believed to be the tibia of a 10-foot-tall, 3,500-pound dinosaur that scientists call Teen Rex. The Denver Museum of Nature and Science announced the discovery Monday, saying only a few such fossils have been found anywhere in the world.
The museum said it is the most complete tyrannosaurus specimen it has ever collected, and it plans to open an exhibition later this month and screen a documentary on the subject.
Tyler Lyson, the museum's curator of paleontology and a friend of their father's who identified the fossil, said in a statement that the boys had made an “incredible dinosaur discovery that advances science and deepens our understanding of the natural world.”
After determining that the fossils, found in the rocky Hell Creek Formation south of Marmarth, North Dakota, were more than 65 million years old, Dr. Lyson led an 11-day excavation that involved removing the top layer of rock using a 70-pound jackhammer, picks and shovels. The bones were then carefully excavated, photographed and encased in protective plaster for safe transport to the museum. Paleontologists plan to return to the site this year to continue searching for the bones, according to the museum.
In the video, brothers Jessin and Liam Fisher, ages 9 and 12, and their cousin Kaiden Madsen, now 11, say they were busy hiking and exploring when they first found the bone and didn't realize it was anything special. “We had no idea,” Jessin says in the video. At first, Dr. Lyson thought it was from a duck-billed dinosaur, Jessin adds.
During a press conference on Monday, all three boys agreed that the T-Rex was their favorite dinosaur species. “I was, like, speechless,” Kaiden said of how he felt when he finally learned the significance of their discovery.
Dr Lyson said he'll never forget the moment when researchers at the excavation uncovered a dinosaur's lower jaw, with several large, serrated teeth protruding from it. He knew immediately it was a T. rex. “It still gives me goosebumps,” he said.
