After making a 2,000-mile journey from Montana, a nearly complete T.rex skeleton were unveiled this week at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Paleontologists and curators unveiled parts of the T.rex skeleton on April 15, including its jaw, teeth, and leg bone, according to NBC Washington.
Museum Director Kirk Johnson told a crowd during the unveiling that the skeleton ranks as one of the top five T.rex skeletons ever discovered because it is approximately 85 percent complete.
"It lay in the ground much as it had died on the shores of a stream in Montana just over 66 million years ago," Johnson said, according to NBC Washington.
The bones were shipped in 16 carefully packed crates and arrived in D.C. via FedEx truck. The bones received a police escort as well.
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History's dinosaur hall opened back in 1911. It has never had a nearly complete T.rex skeleton, until now.
The large fossil, also known to as "Wankel T.rex." was discovered in 1988 by rancher Kathy Wankel on federal land near the Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana.
"Pretty thrilling for a couple of Montana kids," Wankel said, according to NBC Washington. "We were so thrilled we had found a bone; we called that a mega find. But I think now this is a mega find."
She added that she's proud to see the dino at a national museum.
The fossil was on loan to the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont. for over two decades before the Smithsonian reached a 5-year loan agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Previously, the museum only had plaster and plastic reproduction of a T.rex.
T Rex gets a police escort...66 million year old dino has arrived! @nbcwashington #DC https://t.co/T5otQiHp0V
— Angie Goff (@OhMyGOFF) April 15, 2014
"Sixty-six million years [old]. To see something like that... here? Oh, it's so exciting," said Smithsonian employee Adrianne Massey, according to NBC Washington.
Originally the skeleton was going to be delivered last year, but its delivery was held up due to the government shutdown in October 2013.
Most fossils have been discovered in Montana, North and South Dakota, Wyoming and in Canada, according to the museum.
The Smithsonian's dinosaur hall will close temporarily on April 27 for renovations.
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