HELL CREEK FORMATION, N.D. (WTHR) — A University of California Merced student had the experience of a lifetime finding a 65-million-year-old fossil.
Harrison Duran is studying biology at the California school. As a longtime fan of dinosaurs, he decided to take a course on the history of dinosaurs his freshman year. He furthered his interest outside the classroom by going on a two-week digging trip with a Mayville State biology professor Michael Kjelland.
Kjelland is an experienced excavator who crossed paths with Duran, then teamed up with him to create a nonprofit dedicated to research in various fields of paleontology.
On a recent trip to rural North Dakota, the team dug up a partial triceratops skull that had been there for 65 million years.