5-Year-Old Girl Discovers New Species Of Dinosaur; Scientists Name It After Her
LatestIn perhaps the most heartwarming story to ever involve a tiny fossilized pelvis, paleontologists have named a new species of flying dinosaur after the five-year-old cherub of a girl who discovered it. Daisy Morris, now nine, unearthed the fossil in 2008 while walking with her family on the Isle of Wight. She took the specimen to dinosaur expert Martin Simpson, who passed it onto two more dinosaur experts. The team studied the fossil for five years because, you know, it’s necessary to really savor each moment of a scientific pelvis-gazing, and just announced last week that it does indeed belong to a previously unknown species of crow-sized pterosaurs. In tribute to its finder, they have dubbed it Vectidraco Daisymorrisae, or, in more common parlance, the daisymorrisaurus (ok, that’s not actually how dinosaur names work, but a girl can dream!).