paluxysaurus

which stands to reason since everyone here in Somervell County knows the bones were found in the Paluxy River. BUT the bones had been misidentified as pleurocoelus.Now the Texas State Legislature will be asked to change the State Dinosaur to paluxysaurus.

It's as if the bluebonnets Texans had been honoring as the state flower turned out to be black-eyed Susans. The Official Dinosaur of Texas turns out to be a sauropod of a different color.Bones found on a ranch near Glen Rose during the 1990s were identified as the remains of the pleurocoelus, a plant-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Central Texas about 110 million years ago.

Celebrated for its Texas-scale size and power, the pleurocoelus (pronounced pluro-SEE-lus) quickly captured the public's imagination, and 10 years ago the state Legislature designated it the Official Dinosaur of Texas.

pleurocoelus

But a Southern Methodist University graduate student discovered recently that the bones were not those of a pleurocoelus at all but of a previously unknown species he named the paluxysaurus (pronounced pah-luxy-SAH-rus). The bones were found near the Paluxy River.

Now the pleurocoelus may be stripped of its official designation and the honor reassigned to the paluxysaurus.

The bones rested in a box at SMU until 2001, when Mr. Rose was assigned to examine them as part of his master's thesis. He did so for three years. During that time, he compared the bones with a pleurocoelus specimen at the Smithsonian Institution and discovered that the leg and shoulder bones were significantly different....

Museum officials will also ask the Legislature to demote the pleurocoelus and designate the paluxysaurus as the state's rightful official dinosaur, he said.

Mr. Rose said the discovery of a new species meant that there was more diversity among dinosaurs of that period than had been previously thought.

Honestly, both the specimens look pretty much alike to me, at least from internet pictures (heh). I do wonder, if they turn out to be very different, if it means the dinosaurs on official Glen Rose websites, letterhead, etc will have to be changed.