MSU professor finds new dinosaur species near Rudyard

BOZEMAN (AP) — A Montana State University professor has discovered a new dinosaur species that may fill in an evolutionary gap between other duckbilled dinosaurs.

The discovery was made near Rudyard. Several dinosaurs have been discovered in the land around Rudyard in recent years.

In a paper published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, MSU adjunct professor Elizabeth Freedman Fowler and her mentor, MSU paleontologist Jack Horner, write about the new species uncovered on a 2007 dig.

In the paper, Fowler says the species, named a Probrachylophosaurus bergei, may fill a previously missing link between Acristavus and Brachylophosaurus, which lived about 3.5 million years apart. Acristavus does not have a crest at the top of its skull, while Brachylophosaurus does.

The new Probrachylophosaurus is dated between the two creatures and has a small crest.