3,000-pound triceratops skull named 'Shady' excavated in South Dakota
A 7-foot-long, 3,000-pound triceratops skull dubbed "Shady" has been unearthed in the Badlands of South Dakota, a Missouri college announced . "You dream about these kinds of moments when you're a kid," said lead paleontologist David Schmidt. Excavation of a triceratops skull in South Dakota. David Schmidt, a geology professor at Westminster College, had just arrived in the South Dakota Badlands in summer 2019 with a group of students for a fossil dig when he received a call from the National Forest Service. A nearby rancher had discovered a strange object poking out of the ground. They wanted Schmidt to take a look. "One of the very first bones that we saw in the rock was this long cylindrical bone," Schmidt told St. Louis Public Radio. "The first thing that came out of our mouths was, 'That kind of looks like the horn of a triceratops.'" Credit: David Schmidt / Westminster College Credit: David Schmidt / Westminster C...