Dueling Dinosaurs facts for kids
The Dueling Dinosaurs is an amazing fossil found in Montana. It's super important for scientists! This fossil shows the skeletons of a young Tyrannosaurus rex and a Triceratops horridus tangled together. They were buried in sandstone rock.
Scientists call it "dueling" because both dinosaurs have many injuries. There's even a Tyrannosaurus tooth stuck in the Triceratops! But we don't know for sure if they were fighting when they died. This fossil was not well known for a long time. This was because of a big legal fight over who owned it. That fight is now over. The Dueling Dinosaurs fossil is now at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It is planned to be shown to the public in 2022.
How the Dueling Dinosaurs Were Found
The Dueling Dinosaurs fossil was first found in 2006. Ranchers Clayton Phipps, Mark Eatman, and Chad O’Connor discovered it in Montana. The land where the fossils were found belonged to two different ranching families. These were the Seversons and the Murrays.
After the dinosaurs and the rock around them were carefully dug up, the ranchers tried to sell the fossil. They tried to sell it to several museums. These included the Smithsonian and the Museum of the Rockies. But they couldn't sell it. Then, the ranchers tried to sell it to private collectors. They even put it up for auction at Bonhams. But they still couldn't find a buyer.
In 2016, Lindsay Zanno from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences contacted Clayton Phipps. They started talking about buying the fossil. Money was raised by a private group called Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. But legal problems about who owned the fossil slowed things down.
The Seversons had most of the rights to minerals on the Murray family's land. There was a big question: are fossils considered minerals? If they were, the Seversons would own them. A court first said the Murrays owned them. But in 2018, judges said fossils could be minerals in Montana. This made many paleontologists (fossil scientists) upset.
However, the case went to the Montana Supreme Court in 2020. This court decided that fossils are NOT minerals. This allowed the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to get the fossils. The museum announced they had the Dueling Dinosaurs later that year.
Why the Dueling Dinosaurs Are Important
This fossil is one of the best ever found for both species. It is also one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus fossils. It is over 98% complete! This means almost all of its bones are there.
The fossil also has skin impressions. These are like natural molds of the dinosaurs' skin. Scientists might even find internal organs, stomach contents, and proteins. Finding these things is very rare! This fossil can teach scientists so much about how these dinosaurs lived. It can also show how they might have interacted with each other.
