Paleontology is often a game of portion , and an undergraduate student at the University of California , Merced recently hit the jackpot . AsCBS Newsreports , Harrison Duran , a fifth - twelvemonth biota scholar with an vehemence in environmental science and evolutionary biology , was on a dig in the Badlands of North Dakota when he struck upon the partial skull of a 65 - million - year - oldTriceratopsfossil .
Duran trekked out to the Badlands with " bone digger " and Mayville State University biota professor Michael Kjelland expecting to find plant fossils on their two - workweek dig . Among the fossilised wood and leaf , they discovered something else : the remains of aTriceratops , one of the most iconic dinosaurs of all time .
Duran , whose passion for dinosaurs predates his academic life history , was ecstatic . “ I ca n’t quite express my excitement in that moment when we uncovered the skull , ” he toldUC Merced . “ I ’ve been obsessed with dinosaurs since I was a kid , so it was a pretty big deal . ”
The specimen was mention Alice in honor of the owner of the land where it was found . After a workweek - long excavation , the partial skull was covered in foil and plaster and transported by truck to Kjelland ’s lab . Kjelland observe that such fogey are susceptible to thievery ( Triceratopsskulls can be worth aquarter - milliondollars ) , but he hopes to eventually make Alice viewable to the world . His idealistic scenario would be touring the skull around various locations , but the dodo must be further analyze and prepared for display before that can happen .
The Dakotas are famous for their dinosaur fogy . Triceratopsare especially prevalent there — in South Dakota , the species is theofficial state dodo .
[ h / tCBS News ]
