5,000-pound block holds 75-million-year-old dinosaur, possibly new species

A 5,000-pound block of sandstone containing a dinosaur that lived approximately 75 million years ago has arrived at a public research laboratory in Raleigh, North Carolina, where scientists are beginning the painstaking work of uncovering its skeleton. The fossil could belong to a previously unidentified species, according to reporting by Axios Raleigh, WRAL and CBS17, although researchers have yet to confirm its classification. The specimen was moved into the SECU DinoLab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences on October 21, giving visitors an opportunity to watch paleontologists investigate a discovery that could add to scientists’ understanding of dinosaur evolution. The fossil comes from Utah’s Kaiparowits Formation, a geological formation known for preserving an extensive record of life during the Late Cretaceous period.