'We're thrilled': North Carolina museum gets best preserved skeletons of dueling dinosaurs

The fossil skeletons of two dinosaurs combined together, forming a death match have been donated to a North Carolina museum. The Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops horridus, also known as the dueling dinosaurs were buried together around 67 million years. On November 17, a non profit organization called Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences said in a statement that it had acquired the fossilized animals through private funds and now they will be gifted to the  Raleigh museum’s vertebrate paleontology collection.

North Carolina Museum receives a special gift 

As per the nonprofit organization, the distinct fossilized preservation will give the paleontologist an opportunity for research and education. As per the reports by AP, the fossils were discovered at the Montana hillside and they remained within the sediment where they were found. With this, the museum will have the only 100% complete skeleton of T. rex ever found. Both dinosaurs were preserved together in a potential predator-prey encounter.

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Dr. Eric Dorfman, director and CEO of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences said that "The Museum is thrilled to have the unique opportunity to house and research one of the most important paleontological discoveries of our time" He added, "Not only are we able to uncover unknown details of these animals’ anatomy and behavior, but our new dedicated facility and educational programs will allow us to engage with audiences locally, across North Carolina, and worldwide". 

As per a tweet made by NaturalSciences, Dr. Lindsay Zanno, Head of Paleontology at NCMNS said, “The entire experience of inviting the public to follow the scientific discoveries in real time and participate in the research will set a new standard for museums”. As per the reports by AP, the fossils are worth a million dollars and in June the US appeals court ruled that the fossils belong to the owners of the land’s surface rights, not the owners of the mineral rights.

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(Image Credits: Twitter/@naturalsciences)