Washington: A five-year-old boy has discovered the fossil of what scientists believe could be a 100-million-year-old dinosaur behind a shopping center in Texas.
Wylie Brys found the fossil with his father Tim, who works at the Dallas Zoo, on a patch of land behind a shopping center in Mansfield last Sepetember.
This week, scientists from Southern Methodist University helped extract the fossil and believe it could be that of a land-dwelling nodosaur, a pony-sized creature.
SMU paleontologist Michael Polcyn has found more fossilised bones at the site from the nodosaur: a femur and what could be its toes.
Polcyn said it was quite rare to find a dinosaur in this area.
The fossils were placed in burlap and plaster to create a protective shell around the bones. They will be transported to SMU for further cleaning. There scientists will clean and try to assemble the bones and begin to study it, 'Dallas Morning News' reported.
The rare fossil find was made last year when Brys and his son were digging to find some remnants of marine life in the area, which was underwater during the Jurassic period.
"He (Wylie) walked up ahead of me and found a piece of bone. It was a pretty good size and I knew I had something interesting," Brys said.
