North Dakota discovery leads to new dinosaur species

DICKINSON — Researchers in North Dakota discovered something very old that turned out to be brand new. Early this year, a research team from the North Dakota Geological Survey discovered the lower beak of a dinosaur that was unlike other fossils from known species in the region. In 2019, Badlands Dinosaur Museum hosted a scientific symposium, which included some field trips to various fossil-rich sites in North Dakota and Montana. On the trip to Bowman, run by the North Dakota Geological Survey, Badlands Dinosaur Museum curator Denver Fowler found a lower jaw, or beak, from a parrot-mimic raptor dinosaur. Researchers knew right away that it was unlike the only other parrot-mimic dinosaur named from the Hell Creek Anzu, which had a shallower-shaped beak. They had found something new. A fossilized part of the newly named dinosaur species Infernogallus jamesi. Contributed The fossil came from the Hell Creek Formation at Mud Buttes near Bowman, North Dakota,