Kids stumble upon remains of teen T-Rex in historic discovery: "Pretty cool"
Three pre-teen dinosaur aficionados have the answer of a lifetime: they discovered the remains of a rare juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex in the North Dakota dirt. Three brothers and cousins, aged seven and ten, Liam and Jessie Fisher, and their nine-year-old cousin Kaiden Madsen, discovered the remains of a rare juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex in the Hell Creek formation of the Badlands in North Dakota in 2022. The discovery was made by the brothers and Madsen at the age of nine and ten. They sent a photo of the find to vertebrate paleontologist Tyler Lyson of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, who discovered the fossilized leg bone. The rare juvenile T-Rex specimen, which lived 67 million years ago, could offer critical clues about how the dinosaur grew up. The fossilized bones were excavated, placed in giant plaster jackets and lifted by a Black Hawk helicopter onto a truck.
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Denver, Colorado - What did you do for summer vacation? Three pre-teen dinosaur aficionados have the answer of a lifetime: they discovered the remains of a rare juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex in the North Dakota dirt.
Scientists and filmmakers announced Tuesday that brothers Liam and Jessie Fisher, ages seven and ten at the time of the find, and their nine-year-old cousin Kaiden Madsen were walking in the Hell Creek formation of the Badlands in July 2022 when they found a large fossilized leg bone.
"Dad asked, 'What is this?' and Jessin said, 'That's a dinosaur!'" exclaimed young Liam on a video call with his brother, cousin, father Sam Fisher, dinosaur experts, and reporters.
They snapped a pic and sent it to a family friend, vertebrate paleontologist Tyler Lyson of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, according to a statement.
When Lyson eventually arrived at the site, he brushed off a tooth and quickly realized the enormity of what the fossil hunters uncovered: an "extremely rare" juvenile T-Rex specimen that lived 67 million years ago – and could offer critical clues about how the king of dinosaurs grew up.
"It still gives me goosebumps," Lyson recalled on the call.
Kaiden's reaction to learning it was a T-Rex? "This is pretty cool, I can't believe we just found this."
The fossilized bones were excavated, placed in giant plaster jackets, and lifted by a Black Hawk helicopter onto a truck. They were taken to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, where the public can soon follow progress on the fossil's preparation in a new discovery lab.
Rather remarkably, the saga is only emerging now, after a documentary crew and renowned scientists coordinated in secret over nearly two years with top natural history museums to present the kids' discovery.