Three boys uncover teenage T Rex fossil while out on hike in North Dakota

Liam Fisher, Kaiden Madsen and Jessin Fisher pose for a celebratory photo on the day their fossil find was determined to be a juvenile T. rex in North Dakota. Credit: AP

Three young boys were left "completely speechless" after discovering a T rex fossil while out on a hike in North Dakota.

The boys made the discovery in 2022 but the find was only announced this week ahead of a film documenting how the fossil was uncovered.

Liam and Jessin Fisher, two brothers aged seven and ten at the time, and their father were out trekking with their cousin Kaiden Madsen, then nine, when they stumbled across the bone sticking out of the ground.

“You just never know what you are going to find out there. You see all kinds of cool rocks and plants and wildlife," dad Sam Fisher said.

Unsure at first what they had found, they shared a picture with family friend Tyler Lyson, the associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

He organised an excavation, suspecting it was only a duckbill dinosaur fossil, a relatively common species.

Tyler Lyson, left, poses with young fossil finders on the day their expedition uncovered the juvenile T. rex. Credit: AP

Digging began in the summer of 2023, and before long the team realised it was something more significant.

Mr Lyson said: "We found the lower jaw with several teeth sticking out of it.

"It doesn’t get any more diagnostic than that, seeing these giant tyrannosaurus teeth starring back at you.”

The film about the discovery is due to be released, alongside an exhibition at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, opening on 21 June.

Chief preparator Natalie Toth, left, of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, examines fossilized plants from the Cretaceous period. Credit: AP
A reconstruction of a mother T. rex and her young. Credit: AP / Giant Screen Films

Based on the size of the tibia bone, experts estimate the dinosaur was 13 to 15 years old when it died and could have weighed around 1,500 kilos — about two-thirds of the size of a full-grown adult.

Liam Fisher said his friends were doubtful when he told them about the find.

He said: “They did not believe me at all."

During the upcoming exhibit 'Discovering Teen Rex', the public will get to watch crews chip away the rock, which the museum estimates will take about a year.


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