A 20-foot tall animatronic Triceratops. (Hammacher Schlemmer)
RAPID CITY, S.D. – Fossil hunter Alan Detrich believes a Triceratops skull a colleague found near Buffalo may be the biggest ever.
The Rapid City Journal reports that Detrich bought the skull from fellow fossil hunter John Carter, who lives in Buffalo. Detrich is planning on reselling the 8-foot skull.
Fossil experts won't know how the skull compares to others until it's cleaned up. That will likely take up to a year and a half.
Detrich, who has hunted dinosaur fossils since the 1990s, estimates this Triceratops was twice as big as an elephant. A normal triceratops is about the size of an elephant.
He says he expects the discovery to be quite valuable.
Triceratops lived in the Western U.S. about 66 million years ago.