The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture and the University of Washington’s paleontologists have found a Tyrannosaurus rex with a quite intact skull. As per estimations of paleontologists, the find is nearly 20% of the animal, including ribs, hips, vertebrae, and lower jaw bones.

Headed by Burke Museum Adjunct Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology and UW biology professor Gregory P. Wilson, the team came across T. rexwhile on an expedition to the Hell Creek Formation in northern Montana, a region world-famous for its fossil dinosaur locations.

In the beginning, Jason Love and Luke Tufts, both Burke Museum paleontology volunteers, detected pieces of fossilized bone projecting from a rocky hillside. The huge size and honeycomb-like structure of the bones suggested that they were of a carnivorous dinosaur.

The team excavated further and found the T. rex skull along with vertebrae,ribs and jaw and pelvis parts.

T. rex was among the biggest meat-eating dinosaurs that roamed on our planet. T. rex, an average of 40-feet long and 15 to 20-feet tall, was a ferocious predator with saw-like teeth and huge jaws.

Fossil proof has shown that it feasted on other dinosaurs, includingEdmontosaurus and Triceratops, with the animals’ smashed bones even showing up in its fossilized poop. T. rexused to roam on Earth nearly 66-68 million years back in forested river valleys in western North America at the time of the late Cretaceous Period.

TheBurke/UW team-found T. rex has been dubbed ‘Tufts-Love Rex’honoring the two volunteers who detected it.

The skull was nearly 4 feet long, weighing roughly 2,500 pounds present in its protective plaster jacket. The field excavation exposed the skull’s right side from base to snout, including teeth.

According to Burke paleontologists, there is a lot of possibility that the skull’s other side is also present, but for that they will be required to remove the rock around the fossil carefully prior to reaching on any conclusion about its completeness.

A report published in Eurekalert informed, "Paleontologists with the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture and the University of Washington have discovered a Tyrannosaurus rex, including a very complete skull. The find, which paleontologists estimate to be about 20 percent of the animal, includes vertebrae, ribs, hips and lower jaw bones."

The T. rex found by the Burke/UW team is nicknamed the "Tufts-Love Rex" in honor of the two volunteers who discovered it. The skull is about 4 feet long weighs about 2,500 pounds in its protective plaster jacket. Excavation in the field revealed the right side of the skull from base to snout, including teeth.

Although arguably the most iconic and well-known dinosaur, T. rex fossils are rare. This remarkable find is one of only about 25 of this level of completeness. The skull is the 15th reasonably complete T. rex skull known to exist in the world. Next summer, Burke paleontologists will search for additional parts of the dinosaur at the site.

According to a report in Geek Wire by Alan Boyle, "It’ll take more than a year to do the preparatory work on the skull and more than 50 other T. rex bone specimens that have been recovered over the past couple of months, including vertebrae, ribs, hips and lower jaw bones."

Minutes after Wilson spoke, a forklift operator carefully raised the 3,000-pound-plus hulk off the flatbed, moved it onto a pallet, and deposited it in the museum’s loading dock. The skull, still encased in rock and plaster, will go on display in the museum’s lobby on Saturday and stay there until Oct. 2. Then the Burke’s paleontology team will go to work.

The discovery drew praise from Nathan Myhrvold, the CEO of Intellectual Ventures, who has conducted and supported paleontological research in the Hell Creek Formation. “This is really great news. … The T. rex has always been my favorite dinosaur, and I’m really pleased that this one is going to make its home at the Burke Museum,” he said in a statement.