'Pretty cool': American children discover remains of teenage T-Rex

What did you do during the summer vacation? Three pre-teen dinosaur aficionados have the answer of a lifetime: they discovered the remains of a rare juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex in the dirt of North Dakota.

Scientists and filmmakers announced Tuesday that brothers Liam and Jessin Fisher, aged seven and 10 at the time of the discovery, and their cousin Kaiden Madsen, aged nine, were walking in the Hell Creek Formation of the Badlands in July 2022 when they discovered a large fossilized leg bone.

“Dad asked, 'What is that?' and Jessin said, 'It's a dinosaur!' young Liam exclaimed during a video call with his brother, cousin, father Sam Fisher, dinosaur experts and journalists.

They took a photo and sent it to a family friend, vertebrate paleontologist Tyler Lyson of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, according to a news release.

When Lyson finally arrived at the site, he brushed a tooth and quickly realized the enormity of what the fossil hunters had discovered: an “extremely rare” juvenile T-Rex specimen that lived 67 years ago. millions of years ago – and could offer critical clues about how the king of the dinosaurs grew up.

“It still gives me goosebumps,” Lyson recalled on the call.

Kaiden's reaction to learning it was a T-Rex? “This is pretty cool, I can’t believe we just found this.”

The fossilized bones were excavated, placed in giant plaster casings and transported by Black Hawk helicopter on a truck. They were taken to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, where the public will soon be able to follow the progress of the fossil's preparation in a new discovery laboratory.

Remarkably enough, the saga is only beginning today, after a documentary crew and renowned scientists coordinated in secret for nearly two years with leading natural history museums to showcase the children's discovery .

Paleontologists estimate that the “Teen Rex” weighed about 3,500 pounds (1,630 kilograms), measured 25 feet (7.6 meters) from nose to tail, and stood about 10 feet tall, or about two-thirds the size of a fully grown adult. He was thought to be between 13 and 15 years old when he died.

“It is remarkable to consider how T. rex was able to grow from a kitten-sized newborn to the 40-foot, 8,000-pound adult predator that we know it to be,” Thomas Holtz, vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland and famous T.-Rex Authority, said in the release.

A documentary about the discovery will debut on June 21 and will be broadcast in 100 cities in IMAX, 3D and other formats.

“This is the kind of story documentarians dream of capturing,” co-director David Clark said in the release.

As for the kids, Liam and his cousin Kaiden said they'll remain amateur dinosaur detectives, scouring the Badlands in search of new discoveries.

But Jessin is looking to become a full-time paleontologist.

“This has been a lifelong dream of mine – probably because I saw the movie Jurassic Park and found this” T-Rex fossil, he said.

Meanwhile, Jessin gave his classmates some sage advice: “Put down their electronic devices and go hiking. »

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