A dinosaur fossil that could be about 80 million years old has been discovered in Washington by a group of scientists from Seattle, after a deep digging activity among coastal rocks. They found the dinosaur’s femur, which weight approximately 15 pounds and it is 16.7 inches tall. This is the first fossil ever found in Washington.
Paleontologists cannot yet tell what the exact species of their finding is but they believe it to be a theropodous, the group that includes Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus Rex. It is a leg bone described to be slightly smaller than what classic tyrannosauroid standards have known by now.
Back in the days, the land mass encompassing the region was covered in water, which makes the discovery even more interesting. This is the first discovery made by the Americans when it comes to our fauna ancestors.
Three years ago in May, researchers have found a part of a femur bone during an activity that consisted mainly on collecting ammonite fossils along the shores of Sucia Island, in North West Seattle. It was a breakthrough discovery, as scientists cited that the West Coast of Seattle was as well submerged inside water, which uncovers some particular details about the way of living, travelling and facing nature among the ancient animals.
They have been working since then to remove the fossil from the hard rock that blocked it and was finally unveiled and identified after close analysis and comparisons to dinosaur collections in other similar museums.
This is how curiosity is sometimes paid off. While on their mission to collect other, more common types of fossils left behind by marine creatures, they discovered something that looked a bit different, more interesting and mysterious. They went along with satisfying their curiosity for the so called discolored, whitish lump and they eventually discovered a spongy bone texture. It was a different landscape than the one marine biologists, paleontologists and researchers were used to uncovering.
The mysterious piece of bone texture initially came in three pieces which were glued back together during the tree years of analysis and restoration. Little by little, scientist began to discover its secrets and tie it to the past of Tyrannosaurus Rex, among other species.
They observed some large muscle scars on the bone, known to be a femur which apparently had 3 feet in height. It was thus easy for researchers to conclude that this is an animal used to living on land rather than underwater. Later, the rest of the findings basically revealed themselves with the help of time and analysis.
The first fossil to be found on Washington soil will be displayed at the Burke starting with this Thursday.
Image Source: heritagedaily.com
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