A large dinosaur skeleton, originally found in Wyoming by an American rancher, temporarily disappeared while being moved from the United States to Denmark’s Museum of Evolution.
After being uncovered in 2017, a team spent roughly 15,000 hours over 5 years working to unearth the fossil and ship it overseas, according to CBS News.
“It was discovered in Wyoming by a rancher and some professional dinosaur hunters,” museum director Christoffer Knuth told the outlet.
“It’s an amazing specimen, first of all because it’s articulated — it was lying in the same position as it died in 150 million years ago. Secondly, it’s 97% intact, so we have almost every single bone of the dinosaur,” Knuth said. “That means it’s a world-class specimen.” (RELATED: Three Boys Stumble Upon Rare Fossil, Museum Steps In)
A 150 million-year-old dinosaur skeleton found in Wyoming is on display in Denmark – after briefly being lost in transit. https://t.co/tXdM3CeW96
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 8, 2024
The fossil was loaded onto a plane for Denmark and “actually sort of disappeared between Zurich and Copenhagen, but it eventually showed up about a week late,” Knuth told CBS News.
With the skeleton measuring in at 42-feet long, multiple shipping trackers were needed, he told the outlet. During the skeleton’s transit one tracker recorded the bones in Zurich, Switzerland, another had the bones in Utah and yet another said the fossil was in Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, the director added.
The missing bones were finally tracked down in Zurich and then shipped to the museum, CBS News reported.
Once the bones arrived, the museum reportedly spent approximately 24 hours piecing together the Camarasaurus grandis skeleton’s neck.
“We know that it died most likely in a stream or in shallow water, and then it was covered with some sort of sediment, mud, sand. That prevented predators from eating it,” Knuth told the outlet.
The skeleton could have some more travelling in its future, as the museum said it is willing to lend the bones to other institutions, CBS News reported.
