FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) – Arkansas has had a state dinosaur for almost six years, and its name is Arkansaurus fridayi.
If you’re imagining a T. rex-like creature, you might be surprised to learn that Arkansaurus fridayi was slightly larger than a human and looked more like an ostrich. Arkansaurus fridayi is an ornithomimid, a dinosaur characterized by its speed and emu-like features.
Although the exact diet of ornithomimids is uncertain, they probably ate small animals, eggs and a variety of plants, according to the Arkansas Central Library, Roberts Library.
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In August 1972, Joe B. Friday unearthed the remains of a dinosaur’s right hind leg in a ditch near the reconstruction of Arkansas Highway 24 on his property in Lockesburg in Sevier County, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
Friday donated the bones to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where they are now preserved in the University museum collections at the Arkansas Archaeological Survey.
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Geology professor Doy Zachry Jr. took the bones to paleontologist Dr. James H. Quinn of the University of Arkansas, who identified them as dinosaurs.
Quinn cleaned and assembled the bones, comparing them to the legs of two similar-looking dinosaurs previously documented in scientific literature, and created clay models of the missing bones to complete the partial foot. Casts of the foot can be seen at the Arkansas Geological Survey (AGS) and the Museum of Discovery, both located in Little Rock.
In 1973, Quinn informally named the bones “Arkansaurus fridayi” in honor of Friday. However, the work wasn’t over for Quinn yet.
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Quinn believed the bones were closely related to Ornithomimus, an ostrich-like bird or dinosaur, but was unable to confirm this based on the casts alone. The limited availability of theropod records in the eastern United States and the lack of complete skeletons for comparison made it difficult to test Quinn’s hypothesis.
Forty-six years after the bones’ original discovery, Quinn and paleontologist Rebecca Hunt published a detailed description of the species in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology in 2017, officially establishing Arkansaurus fridayi in the field of paleontology.
Arkansaurus fridayi was officially a dinosaur, but it was not yet an official dinosaur of the state of Arkansas.
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In 2016, Fayetteville High School student Mason Cypress Oury noticed that Arkansas had other state symbols like the apple blossom and the mockingbird, but it didn’t have a state dinosaur like other states. Oury worked hard to gain support from local politicians and media attention to push for the introduction of a state dinosaur in Arkansas.
In late 2017, the Arkansas General Assembly passed a bill recognizing Arkansaurus fridayi as the state dinosaur, making Arkansas the 10th state to name a dinosaur as a state symbol, according to bill HCR1003.
“(Arkansaurus fridayi) is unique to the state of Arkansas,” the bill HCR1003 says. “(and) brings recognition to the state of Arkansas and promotes interest in paleontology in Arkansas.”
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