Students Discover 66-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Skull in South Dakota

Such was the excitement that three current students and four alumni joined Schmidt in June and July for the annual dig even though course credit could not be offered. They camped for two months and worked hard to unearth the dinosaur skull, which they named Shady after the town of Shadehill located nearby.

“As we continued to uncover more parts of the skull, I was in denial,” Schmitt, who was overseeing the group, told St. Louis Public Radio. “I was thinking, ‘This can’t be a skull. How lucky would I be? That probably only happens to a very tiny fraction of people on this planet. Like, I can’t be one of those.’”

The fossil was transported to Westminster’s campus, where it will be used for research by undergraduates.

More bones of the triceratops are still lying beneath the earth, but the professor and his students will head back next summer to excavate the rest.