Haya ? Call them dinosaur fanatics: One has been fascinated with the extinct creatures since he was 10 and the other wants to make a career out of studying them.

On Saturday, they both earned the opportunity to participate in a dinosaur dig this summer in Colorado.

Trevor Williams, 10, of Ulysses, and Branson Barnum, 13, of Wichita, were co-winners at Kansas’ first Dinosaur Bee at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays.

Now both will participate in a dinosaur dig in eastern Colorado. They said they preferred that over a trip to the make-believe dinosaurs of Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla.

“We’ll take them both. It’s a lot of fun. We knew it would be tough to judge. I hope they all had a great time,” said Greg Liggett, assistant director of Sternberg Museum, who will lead the dig.

About 200 Kansas students participated in the Dinosaur Bee last month by logging onto its Web site and taking a 15-question quiz with a 20-minute time limit.

Thirty-three were chosen as finalists, and 14 were able to make the trip to Hays to compete in Saturday’s finals at the Sternberg Museum.

In a spelling-bee format, they answered questions ranging from the length of dinosaur teeth and claws to where and how the creatures lived.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Trevor, who’s been interested in dinosaurs “about all my life,” and brought five books to study on the trip to Hays.

Branson also has been interested in dinosaurs a long time. “I do a lot of reading about dinosaurs,” he said.

“That’s what he does – read, read, read,” said his grandmother Marcia Dickerson, who brought him to the competition.

The idea for the Dinosaur Bee came from Don Lessem, who heads up the touring exhibit on dinosaurs now showing at the Sternberg, “Jurassic Park: the Life and Death of Dinosaurs.” Lessem is also a children’s author and movie adviser.

Sternberg museum officials said they hoped the Dinosaur Bee would become an annual event in Kansas.

“I think we will do it again,” said Greg Liggett, assistant director of the museum on the Fort Hays State University campus. “I was impressed with how well it went over.”