In 1989 geology graduate students Johnathan Bryan and Daniel Frederick rediscovered the first record of dinosaur remains from Tennessee. The fossilized remains of a hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur that grew to a length of 40 feet, were located amidst thousands of specimens stored in the paleontological collection when the two were cleaning the collection and throwing away insignificant items.
The bones are believed to have been excavated from the western valley of the Tennessee River by Bruce Wade, a paleontologist who worked extensively in the 1920s. Paleontologist R. Lee Collins, who taught at UT in the 1940s, is credited with bringing the find to UT. The bones were analyzed at Vanderbilt and Columbus College (Georgia) and have been recognized as the first dinosaur remains from Tennessee.