Hutchinson signs resolution designating state's official dinosaur

Artist Brian Engh rendered the Arkansaurus fridayi for ReBecca Hunt-Foster, the paleontologist trying to get the dinosaur officially recognized as a distinct type.
Artist Brian Engh rendered the Arkansaurus fridayi for ReBecca Hunt-Foster, the paleontologist trying to get the dinosaur officially recognized as a distinct type.

LITTLE ROCK — It's a designation more than 65 million years in the making.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Friday signed a resolution designating the Arkansaurus fridayi as the state's official dinosaur. The move makes Arkansas the 10th state to have its own official dinosaur.

The dinosaur was first discovered in a gravel pit near Lockesburg in 1972 by Joe Friday, for whom it was named. State Rep. Greg Leding proposed designating it as the state's official dinosaur at the encouragement of Mason Cypress Oury, a high school student in his district.

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