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Victoria will soon claim the most complete and finely preserved triceratops fossil in the world.
The Victoria Museums on Wednesday confirmed they had acquired an 87% complete fossil of a 67-million-year-old Triceratops horridus dinosaur.
The $ 3 million acquisition, set to move from Canada to the Melbourne Museum for a free exhibition starting in late 2021, includes imprints of skin, tendons, a spine and a 261-kilogram skull.
“This is one of the most significant dinosaur discoveries worldwide ever made,” said Lynley Crosswell, head of Museums Victoria.
“We know our Triceratops will delight and amaze audiences and inspire us to consider the extraordinary wonder and fragility of life on Earth.”
Dr Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator of paleontology at Museums Victoria, said the sample could provide key clues to the anatomy and biology of the triceratops.
“This fossil includes hundreds of bones including a complete skull and entire spine, which will help us unravel the mysteries of how this species lived 67 million years ago,” said Dr. Fitzgerald.
Discovered on the chains of a private property in Montana, USA, in 2014, the Triceratops specimen is larger than an adult African elephant and weighs more than 1000 kg.
It is almost seven meters long and more than two meters high, with a 148 cm wide flounce and three horns.
A team of experts from Museums Victoria traveled to Canada earlier this year, where numerous preparations are underway to excavate the Triceratops from the rock it is enclosed in and transport it to Melbourne.
“I’ve loved dinosaurs since I was a kid and have always wanted to become a paleontologist … (but) seeing the best and most well-preserved Triceratops fossil in the world was something I never imagined,” said Dr. Fitzgerald.
“It will be the canonical example of one of the most enduring and popular natural phenomena in the world”.
Victorian Creative Industries Minister Danny Pearson said the acquisition, paid for by the state government and Victoria museums, was the “Mona Lisa of the Dinosaurs.”
Australian Associated Press
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