Adolescent T. rex fossil discovered by 3 young boys in North Dakota

The remains of a young T. rex in North Dakota were discovered not by a group of trained paleontologists, but rather by three young boys whose goal that day was simply to take a hike.

Sam Fisher, 45, brought his sons Jessin, 12; Liam, 9 years old; and their 11-year-old cousin, Kaiden Madsen, while hiking in the North Dakota Badlands in July 2022, according to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. While hiking, the trio of “young fossil hunters” discovered the rare T. rex fossil, the museum said in a press release.

Once the remains were found, Sam Fisher called Tyler Lyson, his former high school classmate and museum curator of paleontology. Lyson returned to the site with the boys and his team of paleontologists in the summer of 2023 to excavate the fossil, according to the museum. It took a year to recover the fossil because Lyson had to obtain an excavation permit from the land manager.