This is an artist’s drawing of the dinosaur Podokesaurus Holyokensis, which lived millions of years ago in what is now Massachusetts. The dinosaur, whose name means “Holyoke’s fast-legged lizard,” has been named the state’s official dinosaur.
FunkMonk Michael BH via AP
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FunkMonk Michael BH via AP
This is an artist’s drawing of the dinosaur Podokesaurus Holyokensis, which lived millions of years ago in what is now Massachusetts. The dinosaur, whose name means “Holyoke’s fast-legged lizard,” has been named the state’s official dinosaur.
FunkMonk Michael BH via AP
BOSTON – A “fast-legged lizard” that lived millions of years ago in what is now Massachusetts has been named the state’s official dinosaur under legislation signed into law Wednesday by Governor Charlie Baker.
Podokesaurus Holyokensis received more than 60% of about 35,000 votes in a social media campaign initiated by State Representative Jack Lewis early last year, defeating another dinosaur also discovered in the state.
“If I think about my own childhood … what got me interested in science in the first place was dinosaurs,” the Republican governor said at a signing ceremony at the Science Museum in Boston, with several the state’s leading paleontologist. stand behind him. “And the main reason they interest me is because of their majesty, their ferocity and their quasi-alien status. As children, they created miracles.”
Lewis came up with the idea for a state dinosaur while trying to find compelling projects for the Cub Scout organization he led during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project not only engages people in science but also teaches them about the legislative process, said Democrat Framingham.
Podokesaurus Holyokensis, meaning “Holyoke’s fast-legged lizard,” was discovered in western Massachusetts in 1910 by Professor Mignon Talbot of Mount Holyoke University, “the first woman to find, discover, name and describe a dinosaur,” Lewis said.
“Hopefully if this project inspires a few young girls to grow up and explore paleontology, it will be well worth it,” he said.
The species is 3 to 6 feet (about 1 to 2 meters) long, weighs about 90 pounds (40 kg), and is estimated to run 9 to 12 mph (14 to 19 km/h), Lewis said.
Baker called the creature “an incompetent, tough guy from Holyoke.”
Lewis said about a dozen other states also have official state dinosaurs.
