The son of a Dallas zookeeper has discovered the fossilized remains of a "nodosaur", an armored dinosaur the size of a pony, while helping his father dig for bones near a local grocery store.

The rare find was made by Wylie Brys in September 2014. The complete set of fossils were only recently unearthed since it took seven months for Tim Brys, Wylie's father, to acquire the permits to dig up the bones.

Like Us on Facebook

Scientists from Southern Methodist University are helping with excavation. They said finding dinosaurs in the Dallas area was a rare occurrence.

"My dad told me it was a turtle," said Wylie of his find. "But now he's telling me it's a dinosaur".

Tim and Wylie collect fossils because this is something they can "do together outside," said the father.

"He likes playing in dirt as much as finding the fossils, I think," said Tim of his son.

Speaking of this son's discovery, Tim said they were turning up soil looking for bones but finding fish vertebrae when Wylie, now five years-old, showed him a bone. The father knew his son had found something special but wasn't sure what it was exactly.

"He walked up ahead of me and found a piece of bone," said Tim. "It was a pretty good size and I knew I had something interesting".

Tim asked Wylie to take him to where he found the bone fragment. They kept digging because Tim knew there was a chance of finding Jurassic period marine life remnants in the area.

It turns out what they found was a nodosaur. This armored dinosaur, or more specifically armored lizard, was some 15 feet-long and could weigh up 2,000 pounds.

These plant eaters belonged to the Ankylosauria, a group of herbivorous dinosaurs that includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds with short, powerful limbs. They thrived in the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous Period in what are now North America, Asia, Antarctica and Europe.

The fossils were wrapped in burlap and plaster to protect the bones. They will be transported to Southern Methodist University for cleaning and assembly,