An eighty-million-year-old dinosaur fossil, believed to be the first of its kind discovered in the state of Washington, was spotted by Seattle researchers excavating through coastal rocks, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE.

The dinosaur fossil found in Washington State was incomplete, but the study's authors believe the fossil to be the left femur of a theropod dinosaur. The study authors made the conclusion by looking at the dinosaur bone's hollow middle cavity where marrow exists, a feature exclusive to theropods at the time, reported Indian Express.

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A theropod dinosaur belongs to a group containing two legs and are carnivorous. Other dinosaurs included in the group includes the Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus Rex as well as modern birds.

The dinosaur found in Washington State was collected on the shores of Sucia Island State Park in the San Juan Islands northwest of Seattle, from a marine rock area called the Cedar District Formation. The research team that collected the fossil was from the Burke Museum, who made the discovery accidentally as they were collecting ammonite fossils.

The team of researchers from the museum found the fossil after noticing the segment of the dinosaur's exposed bone on the rocks' surface. They later returned to the discovery site with several paleontologists for the fossil excavation, according to The Business Standard.

The16.7-inch long and 8.7-inch wide dinosaur fossil was discovered way back May 2012. It took three years for the team of researchers to remove the fossil from the hard rock holding it before it was identified, according to Nature World Report.

The complete length of the femur - discovered to be 3 feet long - was discovered by Christian Sidor, the museum's curator of vertebrate paleontology and his colleagues after they compared the femur with dinosaur specimens in other museums.

TheWashington State dinosaur fossil was found to be from the Late Cretaceous period.
"This specimen, though fragmentary, gives us insight into what the West Coast was like 80 million years ago, plus it gets Washington into the dinosaur club," said Brandon Peecook, a graduate student from the University of Washington. 

The dinosaur fossil found in marine rocks in the Washington State is considered a rare and unusual discovery since dinosaurs were land animals, according to researchers.

TagsWashington state dinosaur, Washington State, theropod, Washington state first dinosaur, Dinosaurs, theropod dinosaur, Washington state dinosaur fossil, Cedar District Formation, Burke Museum, San Juan Islands