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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