Journal article sheds light on dinosaur of Arkansas

A dinosaur unique to Arkansas has gained more recognition in the scientific community through an article in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The Arkansaurus fridayi, discovered in 1972 by a man named Joe Friday as he searched for a missing cow in Lockesburg, was submitted in a paper to the journal in early 2017. It was accepted in December and published Monday.

ReBecca Hunt-Foster, an alumna of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville who first encountered related fossils as an undergraduate in the early 2000s, said the publication gives the dinosaur type an official name in the scientific community.

That, in turn, will enable the research to be used more to formulate comparisons to other fossil findings and updates to family trees, Hunt-Foster said.

"It was a labor of love," said Hunt-Foster, who now works as a paleontologist with the Bureau of Land Management in Utah.

Hunt-Foster had spent time trying to learn new details on the fossils donated by Friday, but she moved on because of the scarcity of data. Then, in 2016, the paleontologist stumbled upon a paper published on a similar North American dinosaur.

Hunt-Foster previously said such scientific recognition also would be powerful for children, affording them an enticing historical perspective.

Last year, the Arkansas Legislature passed a bill designating the Arkansaurus fridayi as the state's official dinosaur.

State Desk on 03/20/2018

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