Most states have a collection ofsymbolsthat their residents have chosen to represent their corporate identity : flag , flowers , andbirdsare democratic categories . A few have gone the extra nautical mile and named prescribed statefossils — let in the eight state below , who take their own dinosaurs .
Colorado //Stegosaurus
The plant life - eatingStegosaurus — a genus whose name stand for “ roof lizard”—wasn’t the most elegant - look of dinos . With its long spiked tail , stumpy legs , and tiny triangular pass , Stegosaurusstruggled to organize the movements of its own body . Its mind was the size of a dog’s — one of the smallest relative to soundbox size of all dinosaur known to date .
The firstStegosaurusskeleton ever found wasdiscoverednear Morrison , Colorado , in 1877 by geologist Arthur Lakes . He sent a sampling of the fossil to the notable fossilist Othniel Marsh and demand to be hired as one of his “ os collectors , ” whom Marsh employ to dig up fossils in the western U.S. Marsh seemed ambivalent , so Lakes contacted Marsh ’s bitter rival , Edward Drinker Cope , with the same proposal . When Marsh heard about that , he charter Lakes immediately , winning that clash in hisBone Warswith Cope .
In 1982 , a socio-economic class of quaternary - graders in Colorado succeeded in its endeavor to have theStegosaurusdesignated the state dinosaur .
Kansas //Silvisaurus condrayi,Tylosaurus, andPteranodon
Kansas has not one but three prescribed nation fossils , each occupying a particular recess in the prehistorical environment . Tylosaurus , a genus of of the ocean predators screw asMosasaurs , live for a few million years just before an asteroid reach Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago . Pteranodonwas a genus of gigantic flight reptilian with wingspans of up to 20 foot . Both livedin the internal sea lane of North America that became present - day Kansas and werenamedthe commonwealth marine dodo and state fly fossil , respectively , in 2014 .
Technically , TylosaurusandPteranodonare not dinosaur . In 2023 , the legislative assembly deemedSilvisaurus condrayi , the only actual dinosaur to have be in the territorial dominion that became Kansas , itsstate farming fossilafter a campaign spearhead by instructor Joel Condray and his stratum of 6th - graders . Condray is the grandson of Warren Condray , a rancher who notice the firstS. condrayifossil in 1955 and donate it to the University of Kansas ’s Natural History Museum .
Maryland //Astrodon johnstoni
Maryland ’s statedinosaurmay be the only specie discovered by a pharmacist and named by a dentist . In 1858 , State Agricultural Chemist Philip Tyson was out in the field hoard datum for Maryland ’s first geologic map when he found two unusual fossilize tooth in the clay of Prince George ’s County , just east of Washington , D.C. He turned them over to local dental practitioner Christopher Johnston for analysis . Johnston grumpy - sectional one of the tooth and found a star - like design in the tissue paper , which led him to intimate thenew genusAstrodon(“star - tooth ” ) for the dodo .
The tooth lay out one of the United States ’ earliest fossil discoveries and the first found in Maryland . A. johnstoniwas a sauropod , a giant herbivore with a topnotch - long neck opening and tail , chunky body , and thick legs that endure about 95 to 130 million years ago . It was deemed Maryland ’s state dinosaur in 1998 .
Missouri //Parrosaurus missouriensis
Parrosaurus missouriensis(formerlyHypsibema missouriensis ) , happen upon in 1942 in the Ozarks , was the first dinosaur cadaver found in the State Department of Missouri . Geologist Daniel Stewart get together a young son key Ole Chronister near the Ithiel Town of Glen Allen who said his family had found some odd rock candy when they were digging a well . Stewart examined the discovery and realized they were fossil ; eventually , the Chronisters sold most of them to the Smithsonian . The animal has since been classify as a hadrosaurus , a duck’s egg - charge dinosaur that sported more than 1000 teeth . P. missouriensiswas named the state dinosaur in 2004 under its premature scientific name .
New Jersey //Hadrosaurus foulkii
In 1858 , fossil hobbyist William Parker Foulke and palaeontologist Joseph Leidy excavate the first intimately - accomplished dinosaurskeletonfound in the United States on a farm Haddonfield , New Jersey . The farm ’s owner had been digging up bone for two decades and had even pay some aside as objects of curiosity .
In 1868 , visitant were invited to watch the pearl on display at the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia , granting the corpse the secondary differentiation of being the first dinosaur skeleton mounted for public exhibition . The display was so popular , drawing in more than three times the museum ’s usual crowd within the first few years alone , that the institution relocated to a larger deftness . In 1879 , Foulke ’s namesake duck - billed dinosaur went international : Edinburgh ’s Royal Scottish Museum acquired a copy of the skeleton , which became Europe ’s first dinosaur display . Thanks to its global celebrity and local appeal , New Jersey namedH. foulkiiits state dinosaur in 1991 after acampaignby Joyce Berry , an elementary schooltime teacher in Haddon Township , and her many 4th - grade students .
Oklahoma //Acrocanthosaurus atokensis
Oklahoma’sstate dinosaurobtained its official state adoption in 2006 , though its existence dates to the former Cretaceous period . A. atokensisis the only name specie within its genus ; its species name pays homage to Atoka County , where its fossil specimen were first discover in 1940.Acrocanthosaurusmeans “ high - whirl lizard ” and bring up to the typical neural spines projecting from the dinosaur ’s vertebra , but its pincer were the characteristic to dread : Measuring up to 6 inches long , they were designed to transfix its prey and tear physical body from bone .
Texas //Paluxysaurus jonesi
Texas ’s prescribed dinosaur has hold out through an identity crisis in late decades . In 1997 , Governor George W. Bush signed aresolutiondesignatingPleurocoelus(a former name forAstrodon ) the “ prescribed Lone Star State dinosaur , ” quote evidence of footprint and bones found primarily within modern land lines and declaring it “ indigenous to Texas . ” Seven years later , graduate student Peter Rose name thePleurocoelusfossils as an entirelynew genus and species , Paluxysaurus jonesi , named for the Ithiel Town and ranch where the bones were in the beginning discovered . Governor Rick Perry bless a bill to make the change official in 2009 .
With its cervix extend , Paluxysaurus jonesicould reach 56 feet tall , spend a penny it one of the tallest known dinosaurs , and at 56 piles , one of the heaviest as well .
Wyoming // Triceratops
A year after the release of the movie adaptation of Michael Crichton’sJurassic Park , Wyoming claimed the three - horn , frill - necked Triceratops as one of its own . A 1994 statute declared , “ A commonwealth dinosaur shall be designated by election in accord with the law . The results of the election naming the country dinosaur shall be file away with the secretary of state . ” The election in motion was a poll parrot of elemental school children , who may have voted for the Triceratops out of sympathy for thesick beastin Spielberg ’s classic moving picture .
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A adaptation of this account was publish in 2013 ; it has been updated for 2025 .
