North America is a hotspot for dinosaur fossils, but until recently, none had ever been found in Washington. But a few years ago, a Burke Museum research team made a surprising discovery.

Apparently, dinosaurs once roamed the San Juan Islands, or at least Orcas Island.
zardan52 / TripAdvisor
The discovery was made in 2015 at Sucia Island State Park in Eastsound.
brewbooks / Flickr
The fossil was collected by a Burke Museum research team while they were collecting ammonite fossils (a creature with a spiral shell) from the Cedar District Formation. Needless to say, they were overjoyed by the discovery.

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The 42-centimeter-long bone fragment was only a portion of a leg bone, but scientists were still able to determine that it belonged to a theropod, the two-legged carnivores like the T-Rex.
DougCram / TripAdvisor
The fossil is approximately 80 million years old and is from the Late Cretaceous period.
This made Washington the 37th state where dinosaur remains have been found.
Lewis P / TripAdvisor
Hopefully, more will turn up in the future so we can piece together parts of the ancient past.
This just goes to show you never know what you'll discover here in Washington.
peter w / TripAdvisor

Did you know about this recent dinosaur bone discovery? here are some other little-known facts about Washington.

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