Experience: we discovered a rare T rex fossil

I have loved dinosaurs since I was a little kid. I have loads of model dinosaurs, books about dinosaurs and I’ve watched all the Jurassic Park movies. My dad, Sam, is buddies with the paleontologist Tyler Lyson, and I’ve been able to visit his lab a few times.

The area where we live in North Dakota is well known for dinosaur fossils. I like to go out and look for them, but normally find only chunks of rock.

On 31 July 2022, our cousin Kaiden was staying with us, and my dad took us out on a hike along with my little brother, Liam, then seven. I didn’t really want to go because it was hot and I was tired, but I thought I might find some fossils, so I went along.

We’d been walking for about an hour when Liam spotted something in the ground. My dad called me over to take a look.

I could see a long thin, whitish bone that was as big as Liam. The dirt around it had eroded away. Another chunk of bone was poking out next to it. Dad took a picture and sent it to Tyler. He has probably sent him about 100 pictures of things we’ve found, but this time Tyler replied straight away and said: “That’s definitely a dinosaur.”

We had to secure the fossil to keep it safe, so we went back later and covered it with tarpaulin and soil.

I was so excited. I thought it might have been a T rex because of the size. It would have been special whatever it was, but I really wanted it to be a T rex because they’re the king of the dinosaurs. I didn’t want to jinx it, so I didn’t say it out loud.

We had to keep it secret until it had been secured, because it was such a rare find and someone could have tried to steal it

We had to wait 11 months for permission to excavate. The whole time I was excited, but nervous, too. My dad was worried because his co-workers teased him, saying he had just found a dead cow. But deep down I was sure it was a dinosaur. It looked just like the ones I had seen in my books.

When the excavation started, we were allowed on to the site to help, which was a dream come true. I sat by Tyler and we unearthed teeth. I held a tooth that was bigger than my hand. That was amazing. My hands were shaking. It was the first time a person had touched it and the first time it had been seen in 66 million years.

As soon as Tyler saw the teeth, he confirmed it was a T rex right there. My mum cried. I wanted to jump up and down, but I couldn’t because we were next to a really big fossil. I was really happy though.

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We had to keep it a secret for almost a year until it had been secured, because it was such a rare find and someone could have tried to steal it. It was easy for me because I’m good at keeping secrets, but I worried Liam might tell people. We were eventually allowed to say we had found a dinosaur. People would ask, “What dinosaur did you find?”, and we’d have to say, “We don’t know”, even though we did.

Once the fossil had been dug out, it was taken to Denver to be excavated. Then we could tell people the truth, and all the kids from our school got to come and see it. Everyone was really excited – even the teachers.

The fossil and the plaster it was wrapped in weighed 2,700kg (6,000lbs), so it had to be transported by helicopter. They sent a Black Hawk, and we got to sit inside it before it took off, which was one of the best parts of the whole thing. Liam and I got to have the day off school to see it being transported – it was crazy to see it flying through the air.

The paleontologists are still working on the partial skeleton bit by bit, but they send us pictures and messages of how they are doing.

We found out it’s a juvenile T rex, which is really rare – there have been only about four of those fossils ever discovered. It’s a really important find because we can use the fossil to learn how T rex would grow.

Everyone says it will be difficult for me to beat finding a T rex, but I think there is always more to find. I want to be a paleontologist when I am older. I’d love to discover a new species of dinosaur. For now, I always make sure to look carefully when we’re out on hikes, just in case there’s something else out there.

• As told to Heather Main

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