Editorial: Dinosaur calling card

Friday, Dec. 1, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

The first fossilized dinosaur remains to be found in Nevada were discovered close to the Las Vegas Valley, and we're also glad to learn that they will remain on display here at the Nevada State Museum's new facility at the Springs Preserve in Las Vegas.

According to Nevada State Museum and Springs Preserve officials Thursday, the fossils include a femur from a dromaeosaur, a raptor that lived about 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period - the last period of the dinosaur age. The carnivorous creature, whose name is Greek for "terrible claw," was an agile predator and is among the species that provide a link between dinosaurs and birds. In fact, some scientists believe the dromaeosaur was actually a bird.

The fossil was discovered by Joshua Bonde, a Nevada native and graduate student at Montana State University in Bozeman. Bonde began digging in 2005 at an undisclosed location northeast of the Las Vegas Valley. There he also found fossilized remains of teeth from a Tyrannosaurid (an ancestor of the Tyrannosaurus Rex), an iguanodontid and a long-necked dinosaur called a sauropod. Bonde said Thursday that he believes these are the first fossilized remains to be found in Nevada.

The fossils are to be displayed in the new Nevada State Museum that is being built in the northwest corner of the Springs Preserve, a 180-acre national historic site near Valley View Boulevard and U.S. 95.

This awesome discovery should humble those of us who think that Las Vegas' history spans barely 100 years. We look forward to taking a trip to the new museum after it opens in 2008 and examining the amazing fossilized remains of Nevada's oldest known residents.