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Scientists reveal Washington state’s first dinosaur

Burke Museum Paleontologists, Brandon Peecook, left and Dr. Christian Sidor, right, the first to identify a bone found by a Burke Museum research team on the shores of Sucia Island State Park, discuss the fossil Wednesday, May 20, 2015, in Seattle. The fossil is a partial left femur of the theropod dinosaur, a group of two-legged, carnivorous dinosaurs that includes velociraptor and tyrannosaurus rex and modern birds. This is the first Dinosaur fossil found in Washington State. The drawing below with the cutout is the spot the dinosaur bone it is from. (Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times via AP) SEATTLE OUT; USA TODAY OUT; MAGS OUT; TELEVISION OUT; NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT TO BOTH THE SEATTLE TIMES AND THE PHOTOGRAPHER Burke Museum Paleontologists, Brandon Peecook, left and Dr. Christian Sidor, right, the first to identify a bone found by a Burke Museum research team on the shores of Sucia Island State Park, discuss the fossil Wednesday, May 20, 2015, in Seattle. The fossil is a partial left femur of the theropod dinosaur, a group of two-legged, carnivorous dinosaurs that includes velociraptor and tyrannosaurus rex and modern birds. This is the first Dinosaur fossil found in Washington State. The drawing below with the cutout is the spot the dinosaur bone it is from. (Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times via AP) SEATTLE OUT; USA TODAY OUT; MAGS OUT; TELEVISION OUT; NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT TO BOTH THE SEATTLE TIMES AND THE PHOTOGRAPHER

By Associated Press May 20, 2015 1 min read

SEATTLE (AP) – Scientists say they’ve discovered Washington state’s first dinosaur fossil.

The announcement marks a unique find for the state and a rare moment for North America’s Pacific coast.

Paleontologists at Seattle’s Burke Museum say the 80 million-year-old leg bone probably belonged to an older, smaller cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex.

They’ve been studying the nearly 17-inch-long, 9-inch-wide fragment for about three years and say it probably came from a 3-foot thigh bone.

Dinosaur fossils are particularly rare along this side of the Pacific.

The announcement comes about a year after a 16,000-year-old mammoth tusk was found at a Seattle construction site.

The bone fragment was uncovered at Sucia Island State Park on the San Juan Islands. It was detailed online in the science journal PLOS ONE.