The unusual manner of travel capped a yearslong effort to retrieve the first baby Pentaceratops skeleton ever unearthed.
The first-ever discovered skeleton of a baby Pentaceratops — a rhino-like plant-eating dinosaur that roamed the Plains some 70 million years ago — hitched an unusual ride out of the New Mexico wilderness Thursday.
After years of arduous digging and a fair amount of paperwork, the plaster-covered skull and skeleton of the baby Pentaceratops took to the air, carried by a National Guard Blackhawk helicopter to a waiting cargo truck.
Paleontologists with the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, which received the fossils Thursday, made the discovery during a trek through the Bisti Wilderness in 2011.
Fewer than 10 adult Pentaceratops skulls have been unearthed in the past century, so the discovery of the nearly intact baby skeleton was greeted with even more excitement.
Sgt. 1st Class Terrill Lee, from left, Sgt. James Ray and Staff Sgt. Noe Amador, secure the remains of a Pentaceratops on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015.
Jon Austria / The Daily Times via AP
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