Five-Year Old Texas Kid Uncovers Rare 100-Million Year Old Dinosaur Fossil

A five-year old in Texas may go down in history books for making a rare dinosaur fossil find, in urban Dallas.

The discovery of the 100-million-year old fossil was made last fall when Tim Brys and his son Wylie were hunting for marine-life remains behind a shopping center in Mansfield. The father-son duo was searching the site as they knew it was submerged during the Jurassic period. However when Wylie found a large bone, his father realized they were onto something big.

"He walked up ahead of me and found a piece of bone. It was a pretty good size and I knew I had something interesting," the senior Brys said who works at Dallas Zoo.

"My dad told me it was a turtle. But now he's telling me it's a dinosaur," Wylie said when asked about the discovery.

Last week, experts from South Methodist University in Dallas extracted the fossil to realize it was a nodosaur, a pony-sized land-dwelling dinosaur that was described as 'armored beach balls that floated out to sea'. The finding was hailed as rare given where it was found.

"Quite rare to find a dinosaur in this area," said Michael Polcyn, a paleontologist who participated in the excavation to extract dinosaur's femur and toes.