Researchers have identified a new dinosaur species discovered in the badlands of San Juan County, according to an announcement Monday from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science.
The duck-billed dinosaur likely weighed more than nine tons, grew up to 35 feet long and roamed what is now New Mexico about 75 million years ago. A team of researchers with the museum brought the newly identified species to light.
Researchers named the dinosaur Ahshiselsaurus wimani, after the area where it was found – the Bureau of Land Management-run Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness in southeastern San Juan County, within the Navajo Nation.
The area is known for its surreal geological formations, also found in the neighboring Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area, which has a signature species of its own: the Bistahieversor, or “Bisti Beast,” a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex.
The San Juan Basin is also rich in fossils. As early as 1916, the now-identified fossil was uncovered by John Reeside Jr., a well-known collector. In 1935, those bones were believed to belong to a species named Kritosaurus navajovius. But the latest team of researchers found several unique anatomical markers that made Ahshiselsaurus deserving of its own name.
“Discoveries like this remind us that science truly is a community,” said Anthony Fiorillo, a co-author on a research paper on the new discovery and executive director of the Museum of Natural History & Science. “Our team of researchers spanning five institutions and two countries were able to build upon research that started nearly a century ago and now advances our understanding of what our state looked like during the Late Cretaceous Period.”
Ahshiselsaurus is part of a dinosaur family called hadrosaurids, known for their duck-billed appearance and herbivorous diet.
