INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On the list of memorable moments in Laura Rooney’s career, a recent discovery wins by a nose. Or, more accurately, a snout.

This summer, while at a dig site in Wyoming, Rooney and the team from the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis uncovered an almost fully intact Allosaurus snout.

“Everyone was screaming, I was crying, and it was the most exciting thing I’ve ever witnessed — knowing that we found something in better condition than anyone dreamed of,” Rooney shared in an announcement from the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

Rooney is curator of paleontology for the museum and a critical part of a team tasked with finding and gently recovering dinosaurs.

The work is both tremendously time-consuming and ripe with unexpected moments of pure joy.

The museum team has experienced both over the last four years, as it works to locate and excavate pieces of an Allosaurus at the Jurassic Mile dig site in Wyoming.

Leaders say the work started in 2020 with the discovery of the legs and toes of the long-extinct animal, which shares several characteristics with the Tyrannosaurus Rex, but at a slightly more bantamweight and size. More years of work unearthed most of the rest of the skeleton, largely with the bones still where they would have been when the Allosaurus was alive.

“Finding an intact dinosaur is a sign its body was buried quickly after it died without being disturbed much by water, decay or scavengers,” said Rooney, in comments provided by the Museum.

The exceptional condition of the dinosaur would take another leap forward in the moment that drew such rich emotion from Rooney.

Cameras rolled for several heart-stopping moments as the team worked to keep a fossil-rich block of rock intact instead of seeing it slip and shatter into countless pieces.

“With a sound plan in place, we went for it, flipped the block over and you could see exactly what we had. The release of emotions was something I’ve never felt,” Rooney recalls.

According to museum leaders, the block was then moved to Indianapolis, for excavation of the lower jaw, the teeth, and the top of the skull. They describe it as the “final piece of the puzzle” of a more complete picture of how the dinosaur lived.

The leg block from the initial discovery is on display at the Children’s Museum Dinosphere exhibit.

Families inspired by the fossils have an opportunity to see the work in action with a visit to the Jurassic Mile dig site in Wyoming in 2025.

For more information, click here.