STEVENSVILLE, Mont. -- Officials of a Florida museum say Montana's Rocky Mountain front has yielded what they believe to be an unknown species of meat-eating dinosaur, a feathered raptor in the Tyrannosaurus rex family.
The yet-unnamed species of albertosaur, 65 million years old, was uncovered by a Stevensville family of hobbyist archaeologists who have explored a site near Choteau for a dozen years, Martin Shugar told the Missoulian newspaper. He is a physician and director of the Graves Museum of Archaeology and Natural History in Dania Beach, Fla.The fossil is an "exceptional specimen" because the skull is nearly intact and the bones of the body are 75 percent complete, Shugar said.
Robert Bakker, a paleontologist and adjunct curator for the museum, called it "the cheetah of the Tyrannosaurus rex family" and said it "will become enshrined in the great textbooks of dinosaurs."
It is notable, he said, because it is more slender and delicate than other dinosaurs in the Tyrannosaurus rex family. Its breastbone and curved hand claws also are unusual, he said.
"It was an elegant animal. There are bits and pieces of animals like this in other collections but never a complete skeleton," Bakker said. "This find clears up a lot of mysteries."
The new raptor was unveiled at a news conference in Florida on Friday, the Missoulian reported.
The Stevensville family, Cliff and Sandy Linster and their seven children, uncovered the fossil -- and several other types of dinosaurs -- on ranch land outside Choteau. They have explored the site for years as a hobby and bought the site just last year.
They sold the albertosaur fossil to a millionaire investor who donated it to the Graves museum, they told the Missoulian. Then Cliff Linster retired from his construction job to devote full time to dinosaurs. The article did not name the investor or say what he paid for the fossil.
Cliff Linster's home telephone number is unlisted.
Shugar plans to make the albertosaur skeleton and other specimens from the Linsters' site the centerpiece of a dinosaur hall at the Graves museum.
Shugar and Bakker praised the Linsters' site as a monumental find and their amateur excavating abilities as outstanding.
"The Linsters' contributions to science are going to be huge," Shugar said. "Their finds are spectacular. They know what they are doing.