By: Timothy Xia
What Happened?
In 2022, 10 Year Old Jessie Fisher, his brother, 7 year old Liam Fisher, his dad, Sam Fisher, and his cousin, 9 year old Kaiden Madsen went fossil-finding in the North Dakota Badlands. They found a fossilized bone that appeared to be part of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It started when Liam and his dad found a strange gray and white curve in the mountains. They later found out that it was a fossil. After they got back, Sam sent a photo to Tyler Lyson, a paleontologist at Denver Museum of Nature and Science. After seeing this, Lyson’s team started researching and looking for clues that would let them know what type of dinosaur this fossil belonged to. Their first thought was a Duckbill dinosaur,whose fossils were more commonly found. But after digging deeper, they discovered three teeth that looked like they were part of a T-Rex. They later discovered it was a rare, juvenile T-Rex between 13 and 15 years old, ⅔ the size of a fully grown Tyrannosaurus Rex, at 25 feet long and 10 feet tall. The fossil was from the bottom jaw of the T-Rex. They also found more body parts of the T-Rex such as the leg, most of its skull, and the tail. The fossil is now preserved at the Denver Museum.
What did this discovery do?
After finding this, the family were all very excited because this was a very rare thing to find. Sam said, “ I called Jessie and Kaiden, and after they found out it was a dinosaur, they started jumping around,”(from Google Search). Researchers like Dr Tyler Lynson were very happy because these juvenile T-Rex are very hard to find and this discovery can help them understand more about it. This can also help learn more about the Mesozoic Era when the dinosaur lived.
Source From:
https://www.dogonews.com/2024/6/24/three-young-explorers-discover-a-rare-teenage-t-rex