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Support the Excavation of the KU T. rex in Montana

$15,520
107%
Raised toward our $14,500 Goal
51 Donors
Project has ended
Project ended on June 05, at 11:59 PM CDT
Project Owners

Support the Excavation of the KU T. rex in Montana

This campaign has concluded, but if you would like to still support this project, please click here.

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About 66 million years ago, a juvenile female T. rex lived near what is now Jordan, Montana. From the healed scars on her bones, we know she had fights with other animals and survived.  When this T. rex died on the floodplain of a river, its skeleton came apart, its bones dispersed, and they were buried and fossilized. 

For three years, KU paleontologists, students and volunteers have been digging out the fossilized remains of this T. rex, and bringing the fossils home to KU. In June 2017, we want to send them back for more.

A complete skeleton of this T. rex would be 40 feet long and stand 13 feet high. So what have we recovered so far? Of the 300 bones in a complete skeleton of T. rex, we now have: 

  • 25% of the skull, including lower jaws
  • 1% of a forelimb (claw)
  • 60% of the pelvis
  • 29% of the hind limbs (all but the tips of toes on one leg)

Be a part of the story for this T. rex by helping fund our next field season in Montana. Your gift will support:

  • Transportation and tools for the four-week expedition this summer
  • The work of undergraduate and graduate students who will gain the experience of a lifetime working side by side with our paleontologists
  • Renting a backhoe and hiring an operator to remove dirt on the cliff above the “bone zone” where the fossils are
  • Housing for students and staff working at the dig site
  • Preparation of the fossils for display in the KU Natural History Museum

Join team T. rex for KU: support the expedition to discover more of this fossil and bring it home to the KU Natural History Museum. 

Levels
Choose a giving level

$15

Every Gift Matters

This is your chance to say that you helped send a paleontology team from KU to Montana to collect a Tyrannosaurus rex — and bring it home to the KU Natural History Museum.

Contribute $15

$25

Brush the Dirt Aside

Did you know that Barnum Brown, the paleontologist credited with discovering a T. rex in the Hell Creek formation in the 1800s, was a KU alumnus? Help send a team of KU scientists and students to follow in his footsteps.

Contribute $25

$100

Bring a Chisel

Paleontology is often putting together the pieces of a puzzle. Help us chip away at this puzzle and bring home more of this amazing fossil.

Contribute $100

$250

Make a Plaster Jacket

Imagine being a KU student who gets to go to Montana to bring back parts of a T. rex. Your gift will give students a field experience of excavating and preparing fossil material that they won’t forget.

Contribute $250

$500

Dig into the Fossil Layer

This year, we will hire a backhoe operator to remove more of top of the hill at our dig site, down to the fossil layer. Help us dig deeper and bring the T. rex fossil back to KU.

Contribute $500
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