The adult Tyrannosaurus Rex was one of the fiercest prehistoric predators, but little is known about how this enormous dinosaur grew up.
But all that could soon change thanks to three children’s discovery of a teenage T. rex in the Hell Creek badlands of North Dakota.
The extremely rare juvenile T-rex fossil was found by brothers Liam and Jessin Fisher, then aged 7 and 10, and their 9-year-old cousin, Kaiden Madsen.
While it may sound like the plot of an ’80s summer blockbuster, this discovery could change the way scientists understand the early years of this iconic dinosaur.
Dr. Tyler Lyson, Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, said, “This find is important to researchers because the ‘Teen Rex’ specimen may help answer questions about how the king of the dinosaurs grew up.”
The three boys were walking in the Hell Creek formation when they saw what looked like a large white petrified bone in the ground. In this photo, Liam Fisher lies next to an exposed part of the fossil
T-Rex may have been the king of the dinosaurs, but little is known about how this iconic predator grew up
The boys were walking in the Hell Creek Formation on July 31, 2022, when they noticed what appeared to be a large fossilized leg bone emerging from the ground.
Then they sent some photos to Dr. Lyson, a family friend and paleontologist, who believed they had found a more common duck-billed dinosaur.
However, when Dr. Lyson investigated further, it soon became clear that they had found something much rarer.
Jessin says, “I was brushing the sediment with Tyler to see if we could find anything.
“Tyler heard a pop with his screwdriver and he quickly wiped away where he was digging.
“He broke off this tooth and picked it up and we looked at each other with the same look and from that moment on we knew it was a T. rex.”
The specimen was then excavated for eleven days before being secured in plaster casts and flown to a truck by a Black Hawk helicopter.
The fossil remains are now at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, where the public can watch the fossil’s preparation in the new ‘Discovering Teen Rex Prep Lab.’
Based on the size of the fossil, researchers estimate that this T-Rex weighed about half as much as an adult. Here, a team of researchers is working to excavate the fossilized remains from the soft sandstone
Liam Fisher (left), Kaiden Madsen (center), and Jessin Fisher (right) discovered an extremely rare teenage T-rex fossil in the Hell Creek badlands of North Dakota
The discovery and excavation will be the subject of a new documentary entitled ‘T.REX’, narrated by Sam Neil, who played paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park (photo)
The boys’ discovery and subsequent excavation were recorded by a documentary crew and have now been made into a film entitled T.REX.
The documentary crew followed the research efforts for more than two years as scientists tried to understand more about the early days of the T-Rex’s life.
The documentary is narrated by Sam Neil, who played paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in the 1993 blockbuster ‘Jurassic Park’.
Producer and writer Andy Wood says: ‘We could never have planned the inspiring story that unfolded in front of the cameras.’
“It’s remarkable for kids to find a big dinosaur, but as the shoot progressed, the team realized we were witnessing something even rarer: a truly historic T. rex discovery.”
The boys sent photos of their find to Dr. Tyler Lyson (pictured left) of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, who helped research the fossil.
The specimen is believed to be a 12 to 15 year old Tyrannosaurus Rex (artist’s impression shown). This would have been the time of the T-Rex’s life, when it grew the fastest
T. REX premieres June 21 in select theaters worldwide and will open in 100 cities over the coming months in all immersive museum cinema formats, including large format, IMAX, 3D and giant dome.
However, the discovery is also important for paleontologists who want to understand more about how the T-Rex evolved into the gigantic predator we would recognize from Jurassic Park.
Based on the length of the specimen’s tibia, it is estimated that this T. rex would have been about 13 to 15 years old when it died about 67 million years ago.
Even as a juvenile, this fearsome dinosaur would still have been enormous, probably weighing 1,632 kg (3,500 lbs), measuring 25 feet (7.6 meters) long from nose to tail, and standing 10 feet (3 meters) tall.
And like many human teenagers, Dr. Lyson says this would have been right at the point when the T. rex would have grown most rapidly.
The Hell Creek Formation is one of the world’s best places to find dinosaur fossils, but even here, T. rex specimens are very rare and juvenile specimens are even rarer.
Previous studies have shown that the fearsome species may have reached its colossal size through massive growth spurts in its teenage years – consuming more than three stone a week.
However, that rapid growth required enormous amounts of calories, meaning the young T. rex would have had to have been a very successful hunter.
Studies of the few other available specimens suggest that before its rapid growth, Teen-Rex would have been a fleet-footed predator rather than a lumbering giant.
It is also believed that the ‘Teen-rex’ used blade-like teeth to cut through flesh rather than crush bones like an adult.
Still, researchers estimate that a young T-rex would have been able to bite with a force of 1,320 pounds – that’s 200 pounds more than a modern hyena.
Over 11 days, the fossil was excavated by a team of volunteers before being taken by Black Hawk helicopter to a truck for transport
Scientists say this discovery could help us understand how the T-Rex grew up and became the giant, iconic predator that many of us would recognize
T. rex specimens are already rare compared to more common prey species such as Triceratops.
Dr. Lyson explains, “When you’re in a national park, you see deer, elk and moose, but you don’t see mountain lions or wolves.
“You don’t see those top predators because there just aren’t that many of them.”
Juvenile specimens are even rarer, making the boys’ discovery an important opportunity for researchers to learn more about how the T-rex evolved.
Dr. Thomas Holtz, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland, says, “It’s remarkable to think how T. rex could have grown from a kitten-sized boy to the 40-foot, 5,000-pound adult predator that we know.
‘Scientists can really only speculate about how ‘Teen Rex’ might have lived and behaved.
‘Discoveries like this therefore have the potential to provide important new information about those earlier stages of life.’