Wednesday 11 November 2015

New Mexico museum unveils first-of-its-kind dinosaur fossil

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN | Associated Press – Fri, Nov 6, 2015

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Paleontologists in New Mexico unveiled the first baby Pentaceratops skull ever discovered as hundreds of people lined up to get a look.

Scientists cut open the giant plaster jacket that protected the skull of the rhinoceros-like, plant-eating dinosaur as it was airlifted out of the desert badlands of northwestern New Mexico and trucked to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

They revealed the shield-like part of the dinosaur's skull, some teeth, an arm bone, a rib and what looked like a vertebrae, but museum curator Spencer Lucas said there's still much work to be done.

Now, technicians will begin the painstaking work of digging out the fossils from the rock in which they have been encased for some 70 million years.

The process will take many months, but the public will be able to watch from windows that offer a view into the museum's preparation room.

Hundreds of people, including parents with their children, lined up along the windows during a free public viewing Thursday evening. Some children got an up-close look as museum staff showed off the find, while other visitors held up their smartphones on the other side of the glass.

Lucas said the fossils are significant and sure to provide new insight into the dinosaurs that roamed North America tens of millions of years ago. Less than 10 adult Pentaceratops skulls have been unearthed over the past century, and this marks the first baby skull to ever be recovered, Lucas said.

"So here now we have the first glimpse at growth and the early stages of life of this dinosaur," he said.



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