Washington’s first dinosaur fossil found on San Juan Islands

SEATTLE – Scientists have uncovered Washington’s first dinosaur fossil, in a state park on the San Juan Islands.

Paleontologists announced the find Wednesday at Burke Museum.

Researchers found part of the left femur of a theropod dinosaur while collecting fossils of a sea creature on the shores of Sucia Island State Park.

Researchers say dinosaurs are found in rocks from the periods in which they lived, 240 million to 66 million years ago. Washington was mostly underwater during that time, so the state had little exposed rock of the right age.

The theropod is from a group of two-legged, carnivorous dinosaurs that includes velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus rex.