Dinosaur-mad Dean Lomax discovered the bones of a gigantic dinosaur on his very first day of digging at a real-life Jurassic Park in the American desert.

The 18-year-old from Balby jetted out to Wyoming in America's Mid-west for ten weeks this summer to volunteer at a museum and learn from some of the world's leading palaeontologists.

While digging for bones he unearthed a part of a Sauropod - an enormous plant-eating dinosaur known for its long neck.

Said Dean: "It was a massive bone and I found it on the very first day. Finding that so quickly was really amazing and made me want to find more and more."

But not content with just digging, Dean turned his hand to all aspects of palaeontology at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center where he was based.

"I worked in the labs, I moulded and cast bones, I built model dinosaurs and I gave talks to visitors. I also travelled around the mid-west to neighbouring Utah and Montana and worked at centres there," he said.

And the former Balby Carr Community Sports College student impressed the experts so much with his self-taught knowledge and enthusiasm that he has returned with job offers.

Said Dean: "I met some of the world's most famous dinosaur experts and I have realised that becoming a palaeontologist is truly what I want to do. I've been invited back to continue the work I had been doing except this time, if I go, I'll be paid for it.

"I've also been offered work in France and the experts I met have said they will give me any help I need to make a career in this field."

Now back in Balby, Dean, who recently completed his A-Levels, plans to spend a few months at home weighing up his options.

"I've now earned certificates in everything related to palaeontology and I'm just thinking about what I should do with them all. I had a brilliant time and it was genuinely life-changing."