‘Awesome’: US kids discover remains of juvenile Tyrannosaurus ‘Teen Rex’
What did you do on summer vacation? Three teenage dinosaur lovers found the answer of a lifetime: they discovered the remains of a rare juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex in the soil of North Dakota.
Brothers Liam and Jessyn Fisher, who were seven and 10 years old at the time of the discovery, and their nine-year-old cousin Caden Madsen, were hiking in the Badlands’ Hell Creek Formation in July 2022 when they found a large fossilized foot bone, scientists and filmmakers announced Tuesday.
“Dad asked ‘What is this?’ and Jasyn said, ‘It’s a dinosaur!’” young Liam said on a video call with his brother, cousins, father Sam Fisher, dinosaur experts and reporters.
He snapped a photo and sent it to a family friend, vertebrate paleontologist Tyler Lyson of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, according to a statement.
When Lyson finally arrived at the site, he brushed his teeth and immediately realized just how huge what the fossil hunters had discovered was: an “extremely rare” juvenile T-rex specimen that lived 67 million years ago — and which could provide important clues about how the king of the dinosaurs evolved.
“It still gives me goosebumps,” Lisson said on the call.
What was Caden’s reaction when he found out it was a T-Rex? “This is awesome, I can’t believe we just found it.”
The fossil bones were excavated, placed in huge plaster jackets and lifted onto a truck by a Black Hawk helicopter. They were transported to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, where soon the public can follow the progress of fossil preparation in a new discovery lab.
What’s remarkable is that the saga is only now coming to light, after a documentary crew and renowned scientists secretly coordinated for nearly two years with top natural history museums to present the children’s discovery.
Paleontologists estimate that the “Teen Rex” weighed about 3,500 pounds (1,630 kilograms), measured 25 feet (7.6 meters) long from nose to tail, and was about 10 feet long — about two-thirds the size of a full-grown adult. It is believed to have been about 13-15 years old when it died.
“It’s remarkable to consider how T. rex evolved from a kitten to the 40-foot, 8,000-pound adult predator we’re familiar with,” Thomas Holtz, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland and a renowned T. rex expert, said in the statement.
A documentary on the discovery will be released on June 21 and will be screened in 100 cities in IMAX, 3D and other formats.
“This is the kind of story that documentary filmmakers dream of capturing,” co-director David Clarke said in the statement.
As for the kids, Liam and his cousin Caden said they will continue to be amateur dinosaur hunters and keep exploring the Badlands for new discoveries.
But Jasmine wants to become a full-time paleontologist.
“It’s been a lifelong dream of mine — probably since I saw the movie Jurassic Park, and found this T-rex fossil,” he said.
In the meantime, Jasin offered a piece of sage advice to his fellow young people: “Put down your electronic devices and go hiking.”