A new species of dinosaur that lived in the area about 96 million years ago has been discovered in Texas, US. The newly discovered species was named Ampelognathus coheni, and it is a small plant-eating dinosaur, which is a rare find for North Texas. The study was published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The small five-centimeter-long fossil was first found in 2020 near Lake Grapevine around Dallas-Fort Worth, but only now scientists have confirmed that the bones belonged to the new dinosaur species. Paleontologists from the Perot Museum of Nature and Science said the dinosaur would’ve been the size of a border collie weighing between 9 and 27 kilograms.
According to the scientists, it is a little bitty animal; you could almost hold its head in your hand. Ampelognathus coheni roughly translates to “Cohen’s Grapevine jaw.” The dinosaur was named after the volunteer who discovered it, Murray Cohen, as well as the city it was found near.
Initially, the paleontologists assumed that the fossil belonged to a small crocodile. But then they brought the fossil back to the lab, cleaned it up, studied under a microscope, and came to the conclusion that it was a new small dinosaur species, the fourth discovered in Texas.