A family in North Dakota enjoys fossil hunting. When they found a dinosaur bone, they had no idea it was a T. rex that lived more than 45 million years ago.nb

Jessin Fisher, now 12, Kaiden Madsen, now 11, and Liam Fisher, now 9, sit on top of the wrapped Tyrannosaurs rex skeleton they found in North Dakota. Paleontologists excavated the fossil and then transported it to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, where it will go on display June 21. (Richard M. Wicker/Denver Museum of Nature & Science)

The specimen was broken and weatherworn, nearly hidden by the dirt, but to the three boys standing over it in the North Dakota badlands, it was unmistakable — a dinosaur bone.

After years of hiking in the footsteps of dinosaurs, 10-year-old aspiring paleontologist Jessin Fisher, brother Liam Fisher, 7, and cousin Kaiden Madsen, 9, had come across a bone trail — shards of ancient bone, washed downhill by rains. Then Liam and his dad, Sam Fisher, spotted a long, gray-white piece.

“My dad hollered for Jessin and Kaiden to come, and they came running up on the butte,” Liam, now 9, recalled this week. “Dad asked, ‘What is this?’ and Jessin said, ‘That’s a dinosaur.’”

Liam lay down next to the bone, which was more than half the length of his body. His dad snapped a photo and sent it to Tyler Lyson, a high school classmate and a paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.