Three children make the surprise discovery of the “Teen T Rex”: “It’s one in several million”

Three North Dakota children have made a surprising discovery of a rare adolescent Tyrannosaurus rex fossil, which scientists say could rewrite our understanding of the iconic dinosaur.

The children, including brothers Liam and Jessin Fisher, then aged 7 and 10, and their cousin, Kaiden Madsen, 9, made the discovery during a walk in the Hell Creek Badlands region of Dakota. of the North, in July 2022. .

They initially thought the large fossilized leg bone they spotted probably belonged to a duck-billed dinosaur and sent a photo of it to a family friend, Tyler Lyson, associate curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Dr. Lyson then organized a search that included the boys and a sister, Emalynn Fisher, now 14, as well as his team of volunteers and experts.

The researchers quickly discovered that they had a very rare juvenile specimen of T rex, which probably died there around 67 million years ago.

“Juvenile rex specimens are extremely rare. “This discovery is important to researchers because the 'Teen Rex' specimen could help answer questions about how the king of the dinosaurs grew,” said Dr Lyson, who also found his first dinosaur fossil in the same region when he was a child.

The size of the specimen's tibia was approximately 82 cm, compared to that of a full-grown adult, which is approximately 112 cm, suggesting that the new fossil belonged to a T rex approximately 13 to 15 years old. when he died.

Scientists say the adolescent T rex may have been about two-thirds the size of a full-grown adult.

They estimated that it weighed about 3,500 pounds (1,632 kg), measured about 25 feet (7.6 m) from nose to tail, and was about 10 feet (3 m) tall.

“It is remarkable to consider how the T rex was able to grow from a kitten-sized newborn to the 40-foot, 8,000-pound adult predator we know,” said paleontologist Thomas Holtz of the University of Maryland.

“Scientists can really only speculate about how the 'Teen Rex' might have lived and behaved, so discoveries like this have the potential to provide important new information about the earliest stages of life, when the most rapid growth has probably occurred,” Dr. Holtz added.

The discovery of the fossil has remained secret since its discovery in 2022 while a film crew, paleontologists, museums and animators collaborated to present the children's discovery in the form of an immersive documentary.

Giant Screen Films (GSF) produced the documentary, which brings the iconic T. rex to life from newborn to towering adult.

The documentary also includes footage of famous specimens, landmark discoveries and wild cinematic depictions of the T rex over the past century.

“It's remarkable that kids would find a large dinosaur, but as filming progressed, the crew realized we were witnessing something even rarer: a truly historic discovery of a T .rex. It was a real thrill,” said producer and screenwriter Andy Wood.

“It’s the kind of story that documentarians dream of capturing,” added co-director and screenwriter David Clark.