Tthree young Americans passionate about fossils have something to amaze their classmates after discovering the remains of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex in North Dakota.
Scientists and directors announced to the press on Tuesday the extremely rare discovery made by the three boys in July 2022 in the Hell Creek formation, a region known to dinosaur hunters in the northern United States.
Two brothers, aged 10 and 7, and their 9-year-old cousin were looking for fossils when they came across an imposing fossilized bone.
They took a photo and sent it to a family friend who happened to be a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Dr. Tyler Lyson.
Initially, the children believed they were dealing with a relatively more common duck-billed dinosaur remnant. But during excavations of the site, Dr. Lyson and his team of specialists and volunteers, including the discoverers of the bone in question, realized that it was the remains of an adolescent tyrannosaurus that died years ago. approximately 67 million years ago.
“Juvenile T-Rex specimens are extremely rare,” emphasizes Dr. Lyson in a press release. “This discovery is important for researchers because the specimen could provide answers about the growth of the king of the dinosaurs.”
The tibia found measures 82 cm long while that of an adult reaches an average of 112 cm, which suggests that the T-Rex was between 13 and 15 years old when it died. It probably weighed 1.6 tonnes, was 7.6 m long and 3 m high.
