Brothers Liam and Jessin, then aged seven and ten, and their nine-year-old cousin Kaiden discovered a large fossilised leg bone during a family hike in Badlands National Park in North Dakota in July 2022. They then contacted Tyler Lyson, an old friend of their father and palaeontologist at the museum in Denver, with photos of the find.
The skeleton, which was named Teen Rex, is now on display in an exhibition at the Museum of Nature and Science in Denver. In addition, the discovery and its story will be recorded in a documentary film that will be shown in museum cinemas around the world.
About a third of the entire skeleton of the young T. rex was found. ‘The find is particularly exciting because most of the Tyrannosaurus rex fossils discovered so far have come from adult animals,’ explained Lyson, who himself found dinosaur fossils in the same area as a child.
Last year, Lyson and his colleagues, supported by the boy’s family and accompanied by a film crew, excavated the remains. The young T. rex had lain there undiscovered for around 67 million years. The bones were transported by helicopter to the museum in Colorado, where they will be on display from 21 June.
Tyrannosaurus rex lived around 70 million years ago and is one of the largest land-dwelling carnivores of all time. Based on the size of its bones, scientists estimate that the specimen found was around 13 to 15 years old when it died. Teen Rex was about 7.6 metres long, 3 metres high and weighed around 1600 kilograms, which is about two-thirds the size of a full-grown animal.
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