Is This Fossil a Baby T. Rex or a Controversial ‘Nano’ Dinosaur?

A full set of teeth in the fossil's upper jaw were found, along with fragments of hip and skull bones

By Sarah Gibbens
PUBLISHED MARCH 30, 2018

Hell Creek is heaven for paleontologists. The Montanan wildlife refuge is rife with clay and stones that hold clues to our prehistoric past.

It was in Hell Creek that researchers from the University of Kansas recently stumbled on the remains of a young Tyrannosaurus rex—they think.

"We just set off prospecting and a student came across some bone fragments," says David Burnham, a paleontologist from the University of Kansas. In Hell Creek, you're bound to find them. "If you put a black dot on the map for every fossil found in that area, it would be all black."

Fossils from various periods have been found there, and this isn't the first T. rex fossil to be found, but University of Kansas scientists think it could be one of the most intact. The entire fossil remains of the upper part of the dinosaur's jaw, with all its teeth, was found.

Paleontologists dug up parts of a skull, foot, hips, and backbones.

If the remains do in fact belong to a T. rex, that would make them around 66 million years old.