A fight in the Utah Legislature over what should be named the state fossil has been avoided with the introduction of an official state dinosaur.
State Sen. Curt Bramble will end his push to have the Utahraptor replace the Allosaurus as the state fossil, and he plans to introduce legislation to name the Utahraptor as the new state dinosaur.
The Republican senator says paleontologists made cases for both dinosaurs and suggested the establishment of a state dinosaur.
Bramble introduced a bill to change the state fossil after 10-year-old dinosaur fanatic Kenyon Roberts proposed the Utahraptor as a replacement.
State Paleontologist James Kirkland discovered the Utahraptor near Arches National Park in 1990. Kirkland with Robert Gaston and Donald Burge named it in 1993.
