Rare dinosaur bones take helicopter ride to museum

Encased in plaster, the remains of a Pentaceratops, discovered in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness area south of Farmington, N.M., were Thursday collected by a New Mexico National Guard helicopter. The dinosaur remains will be examined and displayed in a museum in Albuquerque.

New Mexico Museum of Natural History paleontologists were the first to see the fossils during one of their treks to the badlands of Bisti Wilderness in New Mexico’s northwestern region back in 2011.

According to Spencer Lucas, museum curator, the traditional means of transporting the fossils are impossible due to the complicated location of the remains. Lucas adds that this excavation was carried out by hand and not machines, so plaster, water and tools were hauled in, all by hand. They knew that they had to find a way to unearth the fossils and get them into their museum.

A total of three loads of bones, the baby’s skull, body and the adult’s skull, were supposed to be airlifted.

Captain Kevin Doo, the National Guard aviator who performed the transfer, said that the event was one of the highlights of his career.

Even with the upgraded engines, the military helicopters strained to heave the over 2-ton skull, the National Guard said. Over the past century, experts only found less than 10 adult Pentaceratops skulls.

Fewer than 10 Pentaceratops’ skulls of adults have been found the past 100 years and this find is the first baby skull and skeleton to ever be found. “So it will be interesting to see what the differences are in shape, the size of the horns and other kinds of features”, he said.

The mission was the culmination of four years of work to excavate two ancient creatures known as Pentaceratops.

Museum officials said they want to put the fossils on display, in order for the interested public to see it.