Scientists Find Bubbaosaurus

Most kids are dinosaur nuts. I was.

When I was in grade school I literally read every book in our school library about dinosaurs—all ten of them. Ok, maybe there were fifty or so books—about a shelf and a half.

Now they’ve gone and changed the name of a bunch of animals and re-arranged the looks of a lot of things since I was paying close attention, but they continue to find the remains of "new" ancient monsters out in Wyoming, the Dakotas, and over in Europe and the middle east.

I often wondered why we didn’t we have our own snuff dipping, tobacco chewing, pickup truck driving southern dinosaur yet? I used to dig around in my back yard and at the beach and on my grandfather's farm with delusions of finding some frightening fossilized head or teeth or something, but other than a few arrowheads and some petrified sharks teeth and coral fragments I got nada as a result of my efforts.

I’m about to bust with pride as a result of reading this story about scientists discovering our own dinosaur right here in South Georgia and Alabama.

“Paleontologists have identified a new dinosaur species, an early relative of the more-famous Tyrannosaurus rex, that likely roamed what is now the southeast some 77 million years ago.

David R- Schwimmer of Columbus State University and two colleagues made the identification from hundreds of fossilized fragments collected mostly in Montgomery County, Alabama, and southwestern Georgia.

They named the new dinosaur Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis, which means "the Appalachian lizard from Montgomery County." It roamed the earth ten (m) million years before Tyrannosaurus rex and was smaller, more primitive and had a narrower snout.

Schwimmer, Thomas Carr of Carthage College of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Thomas Williamson of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science were credited with the discovery recently when the dinosaur's name was officially recognized by the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Schwimmer said -- quote-- "We've been finding teeth and odd bones from this animal for 20 years and it's nice to finally have a name for it." …

The researchers say Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis was buried in mud at the bottom of a shallow sea about 77.8 million years ago after it was carried out by currents.”

It figures that Bubbaosaurous would be smaller than T-Rex, he probably stunted his growth drinking Georgia moonshine and sitting on the sofa watching NASCAR races.