Science teacher makes discovery of a lifetime

For Kent Hups, a Northglenn High School science teacher and amateur fossil hunter, a passion for discovery has taken him from the classroom to the North Dakota badlands, where he recently made a remarkable discovery: a tyrannosaurus trail. His love of asking questions, following clues and looking a little closer is the same spirit he brings to his students—encouraging them to explore their interests, recognize their strengths and see where their own curiosity might lead them.

After a knee replacement, high school teacher Kent Hups was looking for an easy path out of a narrow, rocky valley in the North Dakota badlands when he stopped walking and started to run. “I saw something sticking up out of the ground, and it looked really peculiar,” he says, “like nothing I’d ever seen before.” For someone who’s spent 30 years thinking about and searching for ancient footprints, the lumpy triangle on the undisturbed surface seemed to resemble three giant toes. The amateur fossil hunter was sure he’d found the rarest of dinosaur discoveries...

Read the full story in National Geographic

Photographs and video by Alex Wenchel