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Look out! A T-Rex (skull) is coming to Seattle

There's a Tyrannosaurus rex in Seattle.

A team from the Burke Museum and University of Washington dug up the skull and other bones in Montana last month. It arrived at the museum Thursday.

The paleontologist team breathed a sigh of relief when a forklift delicately set the skull into the Burke museum.

It's only the 15th T. rex skull found in the world that's mostly intact.

Two amateur paleontologists found the skull, along with ribs and hips, in northern Montana last year. Luke Tufts and Jason Love called the Burke Museum team for backup when they started seeing T. rex parts.

Tufts: "We actually didn't know we had a T. rex skull, what we saw was basically like a loose boulder with some big bones sticking out of it."

Love: "Looked like vertebrae and maybe pelvis, but of a really big dinosaur. So we were kind of excited, but actually the most exciting part was about a month ago when Greg emailed us from the field and said, 'Yeah it's real, it's a real T. rex, and there's a skull there which is just amazing.'"

Dr. Greg Wilson is a University of Washington biology professor. He said the discovery is huge for research on the species.

Wilson: "We're still unsure about what this animal was doing to make its living in terms of eating, whether it was a scavenger or active predator. So we can learn a lot about feeding from that skull."

The skull is currently in a plaster jacket and will go on display that way starting Saturday at the Burke Museum. In October they will start cleaning off the dirt and rocks.

The semi-complete T. rex will go on display in 2019.

The crew will head back to Montana next summer to find more of the T. rex.

Year started with KUOW: 1985 – 1986, 1991 – 2004, 2012