Blast from the past

Thursday, November 10, 2005

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De Rosa was thrilled to make the fossil find.

A Citrus County family that spends a lot of time digging up dinosaurs has found something unusual.

"The Allosaurus fragilis that we have in the back is very rare and very unique," said Mark De Rosa, referring to the skull he and his family found in northwest Colorado during one of the expeditions they organize as part of their non-profit work.

De Rosa says the skull is unbelievably rare because it's in such good condition. He says there are only three others like it in the world, as it's about 97 percent complete. He says the discovery was a thrill.

"For me I was very awestruck and I was just taken back," said De Rosa. "I was just, I was like wow, this is something incredible. This is something you don't get to do every single day and so it's just a very unique time."

Creation Expeditions Chief Paleontologist Peter De Rosa says when you find something like this during a dig, you need to be extra careful to keep it intact.

"We basically cover it in one big plaster jacket just like, you know, a doctor would do to a broken arm to keep the bones from shifting," said De Rosa.

The Allosaurus that was found weighed between two and three tons when alive.

The technique got the skull and the rest of the bones back to Crystal River damage free.

When the Allosaurus was alive, it weighed between two and three tons, was about 12 feet tall and about 27 feet long.

The De Rosa family hopes to find a place in Citrus County to open a museum where they can display everything they've uncovered.