First complete T-rex skeleton found locked in battle with Triceratops

Scientists have revealed the world’s first complete T-rex skeleton, found after falling in a deadly duel with a triceratops.

Each of the 67-million-year-old remains is among the best ever found and has only been seen by a select few since it was discovered in 2006.

The pair – nicknamed the “Dueling Dinosaurs” – are kept together in what is thought to be a predator-prey encounter, where they both fought to the death.

Buried in sediments in Montana, they were discovered by professional fossil hunters: a cattle-ranching cowboy and two friends.

Incredibly, the contours of their body, skin prints and wounds – including tyrannosaurus teeth stuck in the triceratops’ body – can still be seen.

It took years to extract the 14-ton skeletons and organize their purchase and sale, so it’s been reported that only a few dozen people have seen them so far.

But this week it was announced that they had been bought by friends at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for an undisclosed sum.

The group donated them to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, which is expected to begin building their exhibit in 2021.

And they released incredible photos of the remains to celebrate the announcement.

It has been described as “one of the most important paleontological discoveries of our time” and is the only 100% complete T-rex ever found.

Dr Lindsay Zanno, the museum’s head of paleontology, said: ‘We have not yet studied this specimen; it is a scientific frontier.

Conservation is phenomenal and we plan to use every available technological innovation to reveal new insights into the biology of T. rex and Triceratops.

“This fossil will forever change our view of the world’s two favorite dinosaurs.”

Dr Eric Dorfman, the museum’s director and CEO added, “The museum is thrilled to have the unique opportunity to host and research one of the most important paleontological discoveries of our time.

“Not only are we able to uncover unknown details of the anatomy and behavior of these animals, but our new dedicated facility and educational programs will allow us to interact with the public locally, throughout North Carolina and throughout. the world”.

A farmer, a friend of his and his cousin found the fossils in 2006 and are said to have reached an agreement with the landowners.

The “Dueling Dinosaurs” themselves went to auction in 2013 at Bonhams in New York, but no bids reached the reserve price of $ 6 million.

During years of negotiations, the fossil would have been locked up in laboratories or warehouses.

But thanks to donors, the nonprofit Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences has now purchased them on behalf of the museum.

The dinosaur carcasses have not been studied and remain buried in the sediments of the Montana hill where they were discovered.

Each bone is in its natural position and the museum’s scientists will have access to biological data that is typically lost during the excavation and preparation processes.

The construction of the exhibition in Raleigh, North Carolina, is expected to begin in 2021.

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