It's Official: Sonorasaurus Is Arizona's State Dinosaur

A bill signed this month by Arizona's governor gives the state something it didn't previously have: an official dinosaur.

Governor Doug Ducey's signature means that Sonorasaurus — the only known specimen of which was discovered near Sonoita in 1994 — is now Arizona's state dinosaur, KTAR radio and other outlets reported recently.

The push to honor Sonorasaurus came from Jax Weldon, a Phoenix 11-year-old who last year wrote to Ducey and state legislators about the dinosaur. As KTAR reported, the large reptile, which was related to Brachiosaurus, likely lived in the Middle Cretaceous, roughly 112 million to 93 million years ago.

Sonorasaurus is thought to have been about 50 feet long and 27 feet tall. A previous effort, in 1998, to honor the dinosaur never advanced in the Legislature.