Gov. Josh Stein praises ‘biggest dinosaur discovery of the decade’ in NC
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Governor Stein lauds discovery reclassifying Montana specimen as Nanotyrannus.
- DinoLab exhibit in Raleigh displays Dueling Dinosaurs and live paleontology.
- Study published in Nature by Zanno and Napoli reframes tyrannosaur taxonomy.
Good Sunday morning to you and welcome to our Under the Dome newsletter. I’m Dawn Vaughan, our Capitol bureau chief.
Democratic Gov. Josh Stein heralded news this week of what he calls the “biggest dinosaur discovery of the decade.”
A major change to downtown Raleigh over the past few years has been the opening of the DinoLab and Dueling Dinosaurs exhibit at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. Every year, thousands of visitors stream through the museum, which is part of the state government complex downtown.
At the heart of the DinoLab is the Dueling Dinosaurs fossil from Montana — what scientists thought was a triceratops and a teenage T. rex. The exhibit weighs 20,000 pounds and required steel to be added to the load-bearing capacity of the museum, which moved its lab to the first floor, The News & Observer previously reported.
This week, it was revealed the dinosaurs doing the dueling are something unexpected. Rather than a young T. rex, the predator is actually a fully grown Nanotyrannus lancensis, Stein announced along with the museum and N.C. State University on Thursday.
“This is the biggest dinosaur discovery of the decade, and I am proud that it is happening right here in North Carolina,” Stein said, going on to praise the state’s public universities and public museums for being “continuously on the forefront of scientific research and advancement.”
The public can see the work of paleontologists as they’re doing it.
With an entrance facing Jones Street, an avenue previously best know as the location of the N.C. Legislative Building, the Museum of Natural Sciences’ DinoLab lets visitors talk to scientists at work. The entrance is next to the museum’s giant, two-story globe.
You can read more about the tyrannosaur news in the scientific journal Nature and a study by Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at the museum and a professor at N.C. State, and James Napoli, an anatomist at Stony Brook University.
And from my N&O colleague Josh Shaffer, who has more details.
More reading:
- Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools bucked state law. House leader demands to know why.
- No one was afraid to talk tariffs in NC at the world’s largest furniture market
- New NC State chancellor Kevin Howell makes history at installation
Thanks for reading. Be sure to listen to our Under the Dome politics podcast. I host a new episode every Tuesday with my N&O colleagues and guests. Listen on all podcast platforms. Reach me at dvaughan@newsobserver.com.
This story was originally published November 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
