On display at the Blackfeet Heritage Center & Art Gallery in Browning, this skeleton represents the smallest, and most complete skeleton of a juvenile tyrannosaur found in North America.  The dinosaur was about three years of age when it died, and fell into an ancient river, 73 million years ago.  The cause of death is unknown.  The tyrannosaur was very closely related to Tyrannosaurus rex.  Its blade-shaped, serrated teeth indicate that it was a flesh-eater rather than a bone crusher like adult tyrannosaurs.

On the front-end of the skeleton, between the two shoulder blades is a boomerang-shaped bone called the furcula.  In birds the furcula is called the wish bone.  The presence of a wish bone in a tyrannosaur is one of many pieces of evidence indicating that birds are the descendents of dinosaurs.

The fossil was discovered on the Blackfeet Reservation by Dale and Patty Fenner and collected and prepared by the Museum of the Rockies, under the direction of Dr. Jack Horner.  Funding for preparation was made possible by the Discovery Channel.


The Museum of the Rockies has developed a series of exhibits that take you from 4.6 billion years ago to the last 200 years of Montana's history.  These exhibits are frequently based on original research by museum curators.  The exhibit, "One Day 80 Million Years Ago", is based on twelve years of research by the Dr. John R. "Jack" Horner, and his crew at an area near Choteau, Montana popularly known as Egg Mountain.

At Egg Mountain nests and eggs of the duck-billed dinosaur, Maiasaura peeblesorum, (Montana State Fossil) and the small plant-eater Orodromeus makelai have been found.  The 1978 discovery of fourteen dinosaur nests by Jack Horner helped convince other paleontologists that dinosaurs built vast colonies in order to better care for their young in a manner similar to birds.  It is now widely believed that all dinosaurs reproduced by laying eggs.

The fossils of numerous other plant-eating dinosaurs have been discovered in herds made up of both adults and young.  Inside many of these dinosaur nests were found fossilized eggshell fragments that were thoroughly crushed, as by the feet of baby dinosaurs, leading Horner to conclude that the babies stayed in the nests and were fed and cared for by their parents, if the young had left the nests immediately after hatching, the eggshells would have stayed more intact.  Recent finds suggest there may be as many as thirty fossilized bones per square yard in the area of Egg Mountain.  This site was used as a nesting colony by at least three dinosaur species during the Late Cretaceous period and has yielded the largest collection of dinosaur remains in the world.  Full-sized recreations of these dinosaurs illustrate their behaviors, especially the now widely accepted theory of maternal nurturing by Maiasaura peeblesorum, or "good mother lizard" discovered and named by Horner.


'Unearth the Mystery…Past and Present' with the Old Trail Museum.  Located at the north end of Choteau Montana, on US Highway 89, the non-profit museum reflects the rich natural and cultural history of Montana's pristine Rocky Mountain Front region.  Explore fossils, dinosaurs, Native American artifacts, grizzly bears, and the diverse and colorful local history.  Other exhibits include A.B. Guthrie, Jr., Old Agency on the Teton, Jesse Gleason's art studio, the Old North Trail, Metis people, and Choteau's last hanging.  Don't miss 'Dinosaurs of the Two Medicine,' the Old Trail Museum's new paleontology gallery! Take a walking tour of the world famous paleontological site, Egg Mountain. Reservations required.


The Two Medicine Dinosaur Center is located in Bynum, Montana, approximately half-way between Great Falls and Glacier Park on U.S. 89.  The Two Medicine Formation is one of the most paleontologically significant rock layers in the world.  From its sediments, the first dinosaur eggs from North America, the first discovered nest of dinosaur babies in the world, and the closest dinosaur/bird relative from North America have been recovered.  The Two Medicine Dinosaur Center is located in the heart of this Formation, and only a few miles from where these discoveries were made.  The Center is a non-profit research and educational institution whose main focus is the dinosaurs of the Two Medicine Formation.