Paleontologists have discovered the first dinosaur fossil in Washington state to be similar to a velociraptor or a Tyrannosaurus rex, Seattle's Burke Museum announced Wednesday.
Researchers found a small section of exposed bone along the shores of Sucia Island State Park in the San Juan Islands when collecting ammonite fossils, a creature with a spiral shell.
They returned with a team of paleontologists to help excavate the fossil so it could be studied at the Burke Museum.
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The fossil is a partial left femur of a theropod dinosaur, a group of two-legged, carnivorous dinosaurs that includes the velociraptor, the T. rex and modern birds.
Nearly 17 inches long and 8.7 inches wide, the fossil is from the late Cretaceous period and is approximately 80 million years old. The complete femur would have been over 3 feet long, slightly smaller than a T. rex.
Paleontologists aren’t able to identify the exact family or species to which the fossil belongs because it is incomplete.
“The fossil record of the West Coast is very spotty when compared to the rich record of the interior of North America,” said Brandon Peecook, who worked on a study of the fossil. “This specimen, though fragmentary, gives us insight into what the West Coast was like 80 million years ago, plus it gets Washington into the dinosaur club."
Washington is now the 37th state where dinosaurs have been found. The newly discovered fossil will go on display at Burke Museum on Thursday afternoon.
The following information from the Burke Museum on dinosaur findings, or lack thereof, in the northwest.
Why have no dinosaurs been found in Washington state until now?
Dinosaurs are found in rocks from the time periods in which they lived (240 million to 66 million years ago). Washington state was mostly underwater during this period, so Washington has very little exposed rock of the right age. Because dinosaurs were land animals, it is very unusual to find dinosaur fossils in marine rocks, making this fossil a rare and lucky discovery.
How did the dinosaur get to Sucia Island State Park?
Eighty million years ago, the rocks that today form Sucia Island were likely deposited farther south. How much farther south is a topic of scientific debate, with locations ranging between present day Baja California, Mexico and northern California. Earthquakes and other geologic forces that constantly reshape our planet moved the rocks north to their present-day location.
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