The fossils found in 2006 in the Montana sandstone, now on view at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, were named “the dueling dinosaurs” because they featured what appeared to be a Triceratops and a Tyrannosaurus locked in a death match. Credit...Cornell Watson for The New York Times
The New York Times has a story about the "Dueling Dinosaurs". This amazing fossil of a tyrannosaur and a Triceratops entangled in a block of sandstone by ranchers in 2006. After a protracted legal battle, the dinosaurs were purchased by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, North Carolina. They are the centerpiece of a new exhibit which opened on Saturday, April 27th, 2024. Meanwhile, paleontologists at the NCMNS are trying to determine what type of tyrannosaur preserved next to the Triceratops.
But the real showstopper is a whole other animal — maybe literally. That’s because the exhibit is also debuting what many paleontologists consider the best fossils ever — ones they have spent years arguing about.
When these incredibly intact fossils were discovered in 2006, the bone hunter who found them in the Montana sandstone named them “the dueling dinosaurs,” because they featured what appeared to be a Triceratops and a Tyrannosaurus locked in a death match. But was it really a T-Rex?
One creature was obviously a Triceratops, as it had the thick skull and rhino-like horn of the leaf eater depicted in the original “Jurassic Park.” (Remember the sick dinosaur that foreshadows the film’s chaos, the one with the huge dung pile the Laura Dern character sticks her hand in?).
But the odd little predator frozen in time beside it — wrapped around the Triceratops in a death grip — had the hallmarks of a T. Rex in every way except size.
Was it a Tyrannosaur? Maybe. But with its small body and tiny skull, it looked too small to be any old Rex.
