--- title: First Dinosaur Bone Found in Washington State description: A massive theropod thigh bone discovered underwater shows that dinosaurs walked in modern day Washington State. canonical: https://time.com/3892728/dinosaur-bone-washington/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-21T18:29:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:32:32.342Z article:section: Science og:title: First Dinosaur Bone Found in Washington State og:description: It's from a large carnivore og:url: https://time.com/3892728/dinosaur-bone-washington/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt331e0a0f4f4d6255/6988512d0b72e3406c6e41cd/brandon-christian-burke-museum-dinosaur-washington.jpg?branch=production&width=600&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 600 og:image:height: 338 og:image:alt: Dr. Christian Sidor (right), Burke Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology, and Brandon Peecook (left), University of Washington graduate student, show the size and placement of the fossil fragment compared to the cast of a Daspletosaurus femur. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: First Dinosaur Bone Found in Washington State twitter:description: It's from a large carnivore twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt331e0a0f4f4d6255/6988512d0b72e3406c6e41cd/brandon-christian-burke-museum-dinosaur-washington.jpg?branch=production&width=600&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # First Dinosaur Bone Found in Washington State > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=ab39ccdc-b3d5-448f-85a6-4dca9f654a13&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1)  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 21, 2015 6:29 PM UTC  Dr. Christian Sidor (right), Burke Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology, and Brandon Peecook (left), University of Washington graduate student, show the size and placement of the fossil fragment compared to the cast of a Daspletosaurus femur. Dr. Christian Sidor (right), Burke Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology, and Brandon Peecook (left), University of Washington graduate student, show the size and placement of the fossil fragment compared to the cast of a Daspletosaurus femur. Burke Museum  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 21, 2015 6:29 PM UTC A piece of a massive thigh bone discovered underwater shows that dinosaurs walked in what is now Washington state. The 80-million-year-old bone was found in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Seattle, [Live Science reports](http://www.livescience.com/50909-dinosaur-washington-theropod.html), and it has just been identified as a 17-inch fragment of the femur bone of a theropod. Theropods were a two-legged, mostly carnivorous group of dinosaurs related to modern-day birds. And yes, T. Rex was one (although this bone did not come from a Tyrannosaurus). It’s unknown what species of dinosaur the bone came from. “That’s it,” Christian Sidor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum at the University of Washington, told Live Science. “We’re lucky we got what we got.” The bone was found in 2012, but it took scientists about a year and a half to prepare the fossil. 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