SEATTLE (AP) — Scientists say they've discovered Washington state's first dinosaur fossil.
The announcement marks a unique find for the state and a rare moment for North America's Pacific coast.
Paleontologists at Seattle's Burke Museum say the 80 million-year-old leg bone probably belonged to an older, smaller cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex.
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Burke Museum dinosaur fossil
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They've been studying the nearly 17-inch-long, 9-inch-wide fragment for about three years and say it probably came from a 3-foot thigh bone.
Dinosaur fossils are particularly rare along this side of the Pacific.
The announcement comes about a year after a 16,000-year-old mammoth tusk was found at a Seattle construction site.
The bone fragment was uncovered at Sucia Island State Park on the San Juan Islands. It was detailed online in the science journal PLOS ONE.