A new dinosaur species has been discovered in Texas outside Dallas.
The Texas dinosaur would have been alive more than 96 million years ago and would have been the size of a dog!
Scientists from the Perot Museum of Nature and Science discovered a small jawbone. At first, the scientist thought the fossil was from a small crocodile, but then they realized under the microscope that it belonged to a new kind of dinosaur.
Ron Tykoski, vice president at the Museum, told the Houston Chronicle that he realized the jawbone was not from a crocodile when he noticed an articulation point that only plant-eating dinosaurs had.
Scientist spent investigating the fossil form three years, until they published their conclusions in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology recently, naming the dinosaur after Murray Cohen, the volunteer who found it, now the Texan dinosaur is proudly called Ampelognathus coheni, that could be translated as “Cohen’s Grapevine jaw.”
According to Tykoski, the dinosaur would have been about 6-feet long and weigh around 20 to 60 pounds, about the size and weight of a Husky.
“It’s a little bitty animal,” Tykoski told The Dallas Morning News. “You could almost hold its head in your hand.”
This is the first time that a small plant-eating dinosaur has been discovered in Texas, making it a huge discovery, as scientists could only guess that such dinosaurs lived in the area and now, they have evidence to support that thesis.
Tyoski now hopes that this discovery could lead to more research in the rock where the jawbone was found, and to discover more Texas dinosaurs in the future.
