Perhaps the best dinosaur fossil ever discovered. So why has hardly anyone seen it?

A Montana rancher found two skeletons in combat – the Dueling Dinosaurs. But who do they belong to, and will the public ever see them?The early June morning in Montana was already very hot and dry by 7.30, when Clayton Phipps and his friend, Mark Eatman, set out to search for fossils. Phipps, a rancher who calls himself the Dino Cowboy, was wearing his trademark black felt Stetson cattleman hat.The two had gone bone collecting before, but they were joined on this day for the first time by Phipps ’s cousin, Chad O’Connor. The trio fanned out to hike through the badlands of what they thought was the Judith River Formation; later, they would learn they had actually been in an area called Hell Creek, a division of gray and ochre sandstone, shale and clay deposited about 66m years ago during the Late Cretaceous, when the area was a swampy floodplain.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Dinosaurs Fossils Science Biology Montana US news Source Type: news