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Tyrannosaurus rex, which was found buried in sediment next to a triceratops, is thought to have been fighting the dinosaur at the time of its death.
The first 100% complete T. rex ever found will soon be on display in a museum in North Carolina.
Dubbed the “Dueling Dinosaurs”, the two were kept together in what is believed to be a predator-prey encounter 67 million years ago.
Professionals said the dinosaur’s body contours, skin impressions and even wounds, such as the T-Rex’s teeth stuck in the Triceratops’ body, are still visible.
The remains were first discovered in 2006, in Montana, United States, by fossil hunters. So far they have only been seen by a few dozen people.
It took years to extract the 14-ton skeletons and arrange for them to be purchased by the nonprofit Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for an undisclosed sum.
Most of the T. rex skeletons are held by museums and private institutions.
The nonprofit has since donated the fossils to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, which is expected to begin building a dedicated exhibit next year.
The Dueling Dinosaurs, which have not yet been studied, have been described as “one of the most important paleontological discoveries of our time”.
Dr Lindsay Zanno, the museum’s chief of paleontology, said:
This fossil will forever change our view of the world’s two favorite dinosaurs. Conservation is phenomenal and we plan to use every technological innovation available to reveal new information on the biology of T. rex and Triceratops.
T. rex also has skin imprints – fossilized remains of skin surfaces – which are extremely rare.
The explanation for how the dinosaur was so well preserved may be due to the fact that it was found buried within sediment from the Montana hill.
Each bone is still in its natural position, meaning that scientists will have access to biological data that is typically lost during the excavation and preparation processes.
The fossil hunters who originally discovered the dinosaurs reportedly came to an agreement with the landowners.
But a judicial battle for ownership of the skeletons, which are worth millions of dollars, quickly followed.
About 14 years later, in June of this year, a US appeals court ruled that the fossils belong to the owners of the land surface rights.
The “Dueling Dinosaurs” were first auctioned in 2013 by Bonhams in New York, but no bids reached the reserve price of $ 6 million (£ 4.5 million).
During years of negotiations, the fossil would have been locked up in laboratories or warehouses, until now.
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