Texas: Pleurocoelus (state dinosaur)

Texas has yet to choose a state fossil, but it has more official fossils than most other states, because it is represented by both the state dinosaur, Pleurocoelus, and its state stone, petrified palm wood. Pleurocoelus was a large sauropod dinosaur of the brachiosaurid lineage that lived on the low coastal plain and mudflats bordering a shallow sea. This seaway alternately advanced and retreated over southern North America during the Cretaceous Period. Pleurocoelus hails from the Early Cretaceous, around 110 million years ago.

Like everything in Texas, this dinosaur was big. Pleurocoelus was anywhere from 30 to 60 feet long and weighed 20 - 45 tons, and was built something like a large reptilian giraffe. Its bones are found in the Glen Rose Limestone of the central part of the state, along with tracks given the name Brontopodus. Many scientists believe that Brontopodus tracks are the footprints of Pleurocoelus individuals.

It is not known who discovered the first Pleurocoelus bones in the state, or when. Complete skeletons of this dinosaur are unknown, and most material is fragmentary. The aforementioned footprint material is more common, however, and a particularly nice set of trackways is preserved at Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose.

The state legislature named Pleurocoelus the Texas state dinosaur in 1997 with the signing of Concurrent Resolution #57.

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Pleurocoelus