DINO-mite! Fresno fossil is just a signature away from state honor

It’s been about 66 million years since a plant-munching, duck-billed dinosaur took its last breath before dying and sinking to the bottom of the ancient Pacific Ocean. Now the critter, whose fossilized remains have only been discovered in the hills of western Fresno County, is on the brink of becoming California’s official state dinosaur.

California state senators unanimously approved a bill Thursday to name Augustynolophus morrisi – whose bones were unearthed by paleontologists almost 80 years ago – as the state dinosaur. The bill, authored by Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, and approved in April by the state Assembly, now will go to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature to become law.

Only two specimens of Augustynolophus have ever been recovered, both in the Panoche Hills west of Interstate 5 between Coalinga and Los Banos. Both are now housed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Based on the fossils, scientists believe the dinosaur was about 30 feet long as an adult. It lived about the same time as better-known dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex or Triceratops, just before the mass extinction of large dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period.

This story was originally published August 31, 2017 at 2:10 PM with the headline "DINO-mite! Fresno fossil is just a signature away from state honor."