Part of a $1 million grant from the federal government will give NIU students and professors the opportunity to work on a 65 million-year-old dinosaur fossil named Jane.

Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan), along with Frederick Kitterle, dean of NIU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, announced Monday that $100,000 of the new grant will allow an increased NIU presence at Rockford’s Burpee Museum of Natural History.

Kitterle said the new grant will allow NIU to assist in multiple tasks at the museum, which is home to the ancient fossil. Those jobs include research, exhibits and development of the museum’s research center.

Jane was discovered in the summer of 2002 on an expedition in Montana; she is said to be the fourth-most complete tyrannosaurus ever found.

Dinosaur experts disagree over whether Jane is a juvenile tyrannosaurus rex, or a smaller, lesser-known relative called nanotyrannus.

“Jane’s skeleton is still in the process of being removed from the rock, but there was a good preservation of plants and animals associated with her,” said Bill Harrison, an NIU foreign language professor and participant in the 2002 expedition.

Officials say the merger with the museum and NIU is one of the best things to come out of this discovery.

“Both institutions have a common interest in paleontology,” said Michael Parrish, an NIU professor of biological sciences and renowned dinosaur expert. “There is a lot of awareness and presence in Chicago about paleontology, but at NIU, it gives a more regional focus.”

Although the fossil is currently being reassembled, museum attendance is expected to reach about 115,000 visitors this year.

The remaining $900,000 of the federal grant is expected to go toward a new hall around the exhibit.

Both the House and the Senate are expected to approve the grant within the next few weeks. The exhibit is expected to be complete by 2005.

For more information about Jane, visit www.burpee.org.

Editor in Chief Mark Bieganski contributed to this article.