To a team of Denver Museum of Nature & Science paleontologists, fossil preparators and interns, the hillside of a desolate stretch of the Hell Creek badlands of North Dakota in the dead of summer felt like paradise. Awaiting them was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to excavate and collect a complete Triceratops skull, including the lower jaw, neck and a variety of vertebrae and rib bones.
Pieces of Triceratops skulls and shields are common in the area – scattered like bits of hard candy across the mottled terrain – however, finding a complete skull with lower jaws and an articulated neck is vanishingly rare. “You just don’t have that many 100 percent complete skulls of any dinosaur, and this one is literally 100 percent complete,” said Dr. Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology, who led the expedition.
In a stroke of good fortune, this incredible find was located on public lands managed by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which agreed to partner with the Museum to collect the fossil…