Towering dinosaur with radioactive skull identified in Utah

By Laura Geggel - Associate Editor 2 days ago

The 155-million-year-old specimen was headless until a radiation detector located the skeleton's skull.


Paleontologists have discovered the skeleton and radioactive skull of a previously unknown species of Allosaurus. The fearsome two-legged dinosaur sported 80 sharp teeth and horns over its eyes when it lived about 155 million years ago in what is now Utah.

But researchers didn't know any of these details at first; originally, they found only the dinosaur's skeleton but not the head. Even so, the block of rock that encased the skeleton was so massive — it weighed 6,000 lbs. (2,700 kilograms) — that paleontologists had to use explosives to remove the fossils and a helicopter to transport it.

It wasn't until six years later, in 1996, that the headless body and its skull were reunited.

That happy reunion was made possible by Ramal Jones, a retired University of Utah radiologist. Armed with a radiation detector, he located the radioactive skull not far from its body. It's not uncommon for dinosaur bones to be radioactive, as radioactive elements can leach into the bones over time from the surrounding sediment. Later, teams from Dinosaur National Monument excavated the dinosaur's head, which helped researchers identify the remains as a newfound dinosaur species.



This illustration shows all of the bumps and dips on the fearsome face of Allosaurus jimmadseni.
(Image credit: Andrey Atuchin)

More:
https://www.livescience.com/new-allosaurus-dinosaur.html