By: Xiao (Jenny) Liang

On July 31, 2022, Jessin Fisher (10 years), his brother Liam (7 years), and his cousin Kaiden Madsen (9 years) went fossil hunting in the Hell Creek Formations in the North Dakota Badlands. The area was packed with dinosaur bones. Liam and his dad saw a long gray, white bone sticking out of the ground, leading them to the full discovery.

Sam sent a photo of the fossil to a paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature Dr. Tyler Lyson. After receiving permits in 2023, Dr. Lyson set up an excavation team with the three boys. They initially thought it was a duckbill dinosaur, a more common species. Then Jessin found a T- Rex tooth. They dug further, reveling more teeth attached to the jaw.

The dinosaur bones were encased in a massive 6000-pound and 8 foot wide chunk of sandstone. It took 11 days to excavate. Researchers estimate that the T-Rex was probably 25 feet long and 10 feet tall. It probably weighed around 3,500-pounds, about two thirds of the size of a full-grown adult T- Rex.

The bones went to a museum display in Denver on June 21, 2024. The exhibit was titled “Discovering Teen Rex.”