Group of college students unearth huge dinosaur skull

Undergraduate students from a Missouri college recently made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery during an expedition to the Badlands of South Dakota. According to a news release from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, a group of students excavated a 7-foot-long triceratops skull and brought it back to their campus. “It was so exciting … we just didn’t believe it,” said David Schmidt, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Geology and Environmental Science, who led the group.According to the college, Schmidt accompanied three students and four alumni on the school’s seventh fossil expedition at the Grand River National Grassland, which has become popular amongst students. Because of COVID-19, course credits were not given for participation in the dig, but students signed up for the two-month commitment anyway.Related video below: New dinosaur species related to T. Rex discovered during family vacation Schmidt said the group typically finds fragments of dinosaur bones during the annual trip, but were tasked with investigating something unusual a rancher found coming out of the ground near a fence he repaired last summer. Eventually, Schmidt and the students unearthed a 3,000-pound triceratops skull and then used pick axes, shovels, a backhoe and a flatbed truck to bring it to their campus. “Shady,” as the students have named the skull, is being housed in a secure location until there are enough funds to cover restoration costs, including an enlarged entrance to the college’s Environmental Science laboratory to make room for the large fossil.

Undergraduate students from a Missouri college recently made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery during an expedition to the Badlands of South Dakota.

Leave a Comment