Fossil hunter has huge Triceratops skull

Published October 29, 2012 9:16am ET



RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — Fossil hunter Alan Detrich believes a Triceratops skull a colleague found near Buffalo may be the biggest ever.

The Rapid City Journal reports (http://bit.ly/S1jUI3) that Detrich bought the skull from fellow fossil hunter John Carter, who lives in Buffalo. Detrich is planning on reselling the 8-foot skull.

Fossil experts won’t know how the skull compares to others until it’s cleaned up. That will likely take up to a year and a half.

Detrich, who has hunted dinosaur fossils since the 1990s, estimates this Triceratops was twice as big as an elephant. A normal triceratops is about the size of an elephant.

He says he expects the discovery to be quite valuable.

Triceratops lived in the Western U.S. about 66 million years ago.

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Information from: Rapid City Journal, http://www.rapidcityjournal.com