OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington state has many symbols, including a state fruit, a state flower, a state vegetable, a recently designated state sport (pickleball), and now, completing the collection, an official state dinosaur: the Suciasaurus rex.
The dinosaur represents the first dinosaur fossil ever found in Washington state by paleontologists back in 2012. The fossil belonged to a therapod, a two-legged meat eater like the Velociraptor and the Tyrannosaurus rex, according to the Burke Museum.
Found on the shores of Sucia Island State Park, the fossil was identified as a thigh bone slightly smaller than a T. rex's. Because the fossil is incomplete, paleontologists weren't able to identify the exact family or species the bone belongs to.
The bill to designate the Suciasaurus rex as the official state dino was brought forward by Rep. Melanie Morgan (D-Parkland) at the suggestion of a group of Pierce County fourth graders in 2019.
The class at Elmhurst Elementary in the Fraklin Pierce School District researched the dinosaur and how a bill becomes law and then brought the idea to Morgan's office, who made it a priority to get the bill passed ever since.
Morgan reintroduced the bill every year after, and it finally passed through both the House and Senate and is on its way to Gov. Inslee's desk.
“This is a DINO-mite piece of legislation,” Morgan said when the bill went on the House floor. “This is really about civic engagement from our youth with their state legislature. I ask you for the third time to bring the Suciasaurus rex out of extinction, and vote yes especially for our guests today, the children.”
