By: Maggie Z

On July 31, 2022, brothers Jessin (10) and Liam (7) Fisher, their cousin Kaiden Madsen (9), and their dad Sam Fisher went prospecting, or digging for fossils, in the Hell Creek Formation in the North Dakota Badlands. As the Badlands are usually rich in dinosaur bones, the group expected to find a few. Little did they know, they would unearth one of only a few teenage T. rex skeletons that humanity has ever found.

Liam said he had gone with his dad to search, and Jessin and Kaiden had gone to look in a different area. “My dad hollered for Jessin and Kaiden to come, and they came running up on the butte.” Liam happily recounted the moment of discovery to The Washington Post. “Dad asked, ‘What is this?’ and Jessin said, ‘That’s a dinosaur.’” They then sent a photo to a paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Dr. Tyler Lyson, who confirmed Jessin’s suspicions: those were, in fact, dinosaur bones! “Juvenile [T. rex] specimens are extremely rare,” conveyed Dr. Lyson. “This find is significant to researchers because the ‘Teen Rex’ specimen may help answer questions about how the king of dinosaurs grew up.”

Even though the quartet found the skeleton in 2022, it took almost a year to obtain all the necessary permits to excavate it. Dr. Lyson said they found “the lower jaw with several teeth sticking out of it” embedded in a huge chunk of sandstone in their dig.

The dinosaur went on display at the Denver museum on June 21, 2024, under the exhibited name ‘The Brothers,’ which Liam, Jessin, and Kaiden gave to it in honor of each other and their close bond with each other. Scientists hope they can discover more T. rex skeletons to help them better understand the remarkable species that ruled the lands millions of years ago.