No. 1 - - Stegosaurus of Colorado

[1] Colorado – Stegosaurus (1982)

shortly after this image was captured, the stegosaurus thagomized Kenny to death.

The coolest state dinosaur is definitively the Stegosaurus.

It looks cool, it’s a total classic and it’s covered in awesome and mysterious plates and spikes. Hailing in many instances from the Morrison Formation, some of which is in Colorado, around 80 samples of stegosaurus have emerged, giving paleontologists a lot of information to work with.

Stegosaurus’ weapon of choice is the Thagomizer, which is the actual name of its four-spiked tail. “Teeth,” “claws” and “horns” aren’t anywhere close to as cool as “thagomizer.”

Also, Colorado deserves wicked points for being a pioneer in naming an official state fossil by doing so in 1982, years before any of its contemporaries.

Stegosaurus is the largest of the stegosaurs, and adapted the awesome thagomizer and rows of plates by the mid-to-late Jurassic era, 150 million years ago, ages before ceratopsians became proficient in adapting horns and frills as deterrents from predators.

Hands down, the best official state dinosaur is stegosaurs.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stegosaurus

No 2 - - Triceratops of Wyoming

[2] Triceratops – Wyoming (1994) 
 

While not as awesome as stegosaurus, Wyoming has the second best official state dinosaur with the massive triceratops. At 12 tons and up to 9 metres in length, it was a badass monster with a massive skull (among the largest of all terrestrial animals) the largest of which is 2.5 metres in length, making the skull half the size of a stegosaurus - - and that’s just triceratops’ skull!)

Hailing from the Hell Creek formation, 38 skulls of this classic monster have helped make it one of the most famous and well-known dinosaurs of all. And believe it or not, back in the 1800s, the horns were initially believed to belong to a “large and unusual bison,” if you can believe it.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triceratops 

Indoor v. Outdoor Cats

No 3 - - Hadrosaurus of New Jersey

[3] Hadrosaurus – New Jersey (1991)

A classic choice. 
 
It was discovered in the Woodbury Formation in New Jersey, which is now an American national historic landmark. The nearly complete skeleton provided limbs, dozens of vertebrae, teeth, a pelvis and bits of the feet and some of the jaw.

That’s a remarkable find – and well worth honouring your state by making it the official fossil. Excellent choice, just not the “coolest” dinosaur you could possibly name, though the “high quality” factor is definitely there.

In 1868 it was the first dinosaur skeleton ever mounted (even though it was missing a skull – and to this day is STILL missing a skull).

As I understand it, this is the first and only discovery of its kind, and though there have been other relative species discovered throughout North America, the high quality and early identification of hadrosaurus has made it a famous and historic addition to the fossil record.

Excellent choice for a state fossil.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrosaurus

Tomb of the Undead: Aide Demandee - Pages 148 - 149

A new scene for Tomb of the Undead is up and ready to go when you are. Check it out!

Dustin Mugabe recalls when he was need in help in Aide Demandee.

No. 4 - - Astrodon of Maryland

[4] Astrodon – Maryland (1998)
 

Named after its star-shaped teeth, you probably wouldn’t even see those chompers when you came across an astrodon because they’d be 9 metres up in the frickin’ air! This behemoth brachiosaurid is presumed to have rocked upwards of 20 tons, though considered medium-sized in terms of sauropods.

The specimens were discovered in the Arundel Formation in Maryland back in the 1859 making it one of the earliest discovered dinosaurs in North America ever and the first discovered in Maryland.

That’s pretty cool – plus, Maryland sort of “snagged” the state fossil away from Texas, in a round-about unintentionally sort of way.
 
References:
http://cooldinofacts.wikia.com/wiki/Astrodon

No. 5 - - Pleurocoelus of Texas ... or is it Paluxysaurus?

[5]Pleurocoelus – Texas (1997)/maybe Paluxysaurus?

So … this is an awkward situation. It sounds like Texas adopted the Pleurocoelus (a brachiosaurid) back in ’97, but paleontologists “screwed up Texas’s plans” by suggesting that Pleurocoelus is actually an already identified species called Astrodon, which Maryland adopted as their own state fossil in ’98.

This means, for a few years, Texans were happy to have the 15-ton obscurity representing their state, until they learned that they’d adopted a species that might actually be a different species that someone else had already staked a claim to.

“Well, shit,” thought Texas. *
 
 *I’m speculating and paraphrasing

So since 2009 Texas has been mulling over the idea of replacing Pleurocoelus/Astrodon with Paluxysaurus, which is kind of neat, in terms of its placement in sauropod evolution (if Texans believe in that sort of thing).

Paluxysaurus is believed to represent the evolutionary turning point between brachiosaurids and titanosaurs, which were the lineage of sauropods that would survive until the extinction event that ceased the existence of all dinosaurs shortly thereafter.


References:
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/herbivorousdinosaurs/p/Paluxysaurus.htm 

http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/herbivorousdinosaurs/p/pleurocoelus.htm