New Dinosaur Found

We've introduced you to Jane the T-Rex and Homer the Tricerotops, who both reside at the Burpee Museum.

Now it's time to meet Petey.

During last summer's expedition to uncover Homer in Hell Creek Montana, diggers discovered something new.

"Our curator found bones coming out of the side of the hill. Foot bones, legs, to another type of meat-eating dinosaur. Another Therapod, called an Oviraptor."

They named him "Petey."

"Petey refers to one of our hell creeker's pet squirrel. He wanted to name it after his pet squirrel, Petey..."

Petey is a pretty rare find.

In fact there is only one complete Oviraptor skeleton in the country.

"And an Oviraptor is kind of like a dinosaur you'd see on Jurassic Park, only on steroids- much larger, two legged, didn't have teeth. Has almost a parrot-like beak."

Burpee's search for Petey is still in the beginning stages.

What's encouraging is that it looks like his bones are all over the dig site.

“We found a femur, some toe bones, a nice huge claw, some vertebrae, the backbone and the belly ribs. So there's a little bit of everything."

And this May, Hell Creek diggers will head to Montana again to continue unearthing parts of Petey.

If you'd like to help dig up Petey, there are still spots available to go to Montana in May or July.

Just contact the Burpee Museum for more information.

Williams also recently returned from Oklahoma City with another exciting find for the Burpee Museum.

You're looking at fossils that are over 270 million years old.

That's older than Jane or any other dinosaur that ever roamed the earth.

These fossils are from the Permian Period.

There are 500 lbs of rock at the museum now, from Oklahoma, which contain fossils of reptiles and amphibians from the Permian Period.

An exhibit is expected to be ready for you to visit by 2009.