A new dinosaur is joining the ranks of the well-known tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops thanks to the work of a U. Nebraska-Lincoln alumnus.

Andrew McDonald, a 2008 UNL graduate, recently named a new species of dinosaur, the Jeyawati rugoculus, based on fossils found in New Mexico. McDonald, who is currently an earth and environmental science graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, and his team of coauthors published their findings on the Jeyawati in the May issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The Jeyawati fossils, which include a partial skull and several other bone fragments, were found in 1996 by paleontologist Doug Wolfe. McDonald and Wolfe met in 2002 while McDonald was in high school, where he took several field trips to New Mexico with Wolfe.

McDonald’s work on the fossils began in 2006 when he was looking for a project for UNL’s Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experiences, or UCARE, program. After learning no one was studying the Jeyawati at the time, Wolfe said he gave McDonald permission to work on the fossils.

The Jeyawati is a type of basal hadrosauroid, a primitive type of large-bodied herbivorous dinosaur. While the Jeyawati is somewhat similar the various species of duck-billed hadrosauridaes found across North America around 65 million years ago, its primitive jaw and eyes set it apart as a unique species.When he began studying the fossils, McDonald said his goal was just to compare the Jeyawati to other similar animals, and he didn’t start off hoping to uncover a new species.

“I didn’t realize that the fossil represented a new species until after I had examined it and seen specimens of closely related but different animals,” McDonald said.

McDonald first began to realize the Jeyawati might be a new species about a year into his study, when he began noticing that the fossil’s unique jaw and eyes distinguished it from other types of basal hadrosauroids.

“It was exciting, as this was my first serious research project and my first new dinosaur,” McDonald said.

But McDonald said he still had to complete more research before he could definitively say he’d found a new dinosaur. Studying a fossil like the Jeyawati typically requires extensive reading on similar types of animals to ensure a particular specimen is unique enough to be its own species.

“It is wise to temper the exaltation of naming a new species with skepticism and make sure the features you are using to distinguish the new species are viable by looking carefully at other fossils,” he said.

David Loope, a professor of geosciences at UNL who supervised the UCARE project, said McDonald was well-equipped for the extensive work required for a project like this.

“He has an unusual focus, and he’s been interested in dinosaurs since an early age,” he said.

After determining the fossils were distinct enough to be considered a new species, McDonald, as the lead author of the research project, was able to name the new dinosaur.

“I of course consulted with my coauthors, but the choice of name was largely up to me,” McDonald said.

Since the fossils were found near land that belonged to the Zuni tribe, McDonald used the Zuni words for grinding mouth, which was one of Jeyawati’s unique features, for the genus. The second half of the name, the species, came from the Latin words for wrinkled eye, another of the Jeyawati’s distinct traits.
Now that the paper on the Jeyawati is finished, McDonald said he’s moved on to studying several other new dinosaur species found in Utah. But he could return to the Jeyawati at some point.

“My study of the Jeyawati is finished, at least until we find another specimen,” he said.