Oklahoma legislator proposes this long-neck as new state fossil
Oklahoma Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, who represents House District 46 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, recently proposed making the long-neck sauropod Sauroposeidon the new state fossil of Oklahoma.
“Why Sauroposeidon proteles? Because Sauroposeidon is the tallest dinosaur yet discovered in the world, found in the Antlers formation, near Atoka, [Oklahoma] in 1994,” Rosecrants explained in a Facebook post on Jan. 31. “These fossils were so large that they were thought to be petrified logs at first!”
This proposal may face some controversy, though. Oklahoma already has an officially designated state fossil, Saurophaganax. As Rosecrants explained in his Facebook post:
The Saurophaganax fossil (found in the Morrison formation in the panhandle in the 1930s) was thought to be that of the largest meat-eating dino ever discovered, so an obvious choice for our state fossil. Recently, however, experts re-classified this species because it was found to be a chimera (the fossil was reconstructed with elements coming from more than a single species), essentially making Saurophaganax a false species.
Oklahoma has a separate designation for official state dinosaur, currently held by the theropod Acrocanthosaurus. Fossil trackways created by Sauroposeidon and Acrocanthosaurus can be visited at a state park in neighboring Texas.
Sauroposeidon is my favorite dinosaur!