The Discovery
A massive 5,000-pound block containing a 75-million-year-old dinosaur fossil is being transferred to the SECU DinoLab located inside the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. The transport requires a temporary road closure along W. Jones Street in downtown Raleigh, between Wilmington Street and Salisbury Street, on Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Scheduled for movement around 11 a.m., the heavy specimen is wrapped in a large white protective jacket that functions like a cast to safeguard it during transit.
What Scientists Found
The preserved creature boasts a skeleton that strongly resembles a modern ostrich. According to Dr. Lindsay Zanno, the head of paleontology at the museum and a world-renowned researcher, the animal was a fast runner measuring about 8 to 10 feet long. It featured feathers and a toothless beak, giving it an appearance similar to modern birds. Experts anticipate that this specimen will prove to be a brand-new species of dinosaur.
Why It Matters
This specimen represents the first major fossil addition to enter the SECU DinoLab since the famous Dueling Dinosaurs. The lab is designed to reveal new information regarding dinosaur evolution while giving museum visitors a chance to watch paleontologists clean and study the fossil over the next few years. The exact location where the fossil was originally excavated is not specified in the source; please check the official notice.
Dr. Zanno, who previously helped prove that Nanotyrannus lethaeus was its own distinct species rather than a young Tyrannosaurus rex, noted that paleontology is currently experiencing a renaissance. With roughly 50 new dinosaur species named every year, museum staff view this arrival as the start of an exciting new chapter for prehistoric research.
Source: dinosaur fossil discovery - BingNews · Published October 22, 2026 · Photo by Yulin Wang on Unsplash