New dinosaur species found

From the Halifax Herald: New dinosaur species found
REGINA — A 66-million-year-old partial skeleton discovered in Saskatchewan has been confirmed as a new species of plant-eating dinosaur.

The new species has been named Thescelosaurus assiniboiensis after theAssiniboia district where it was found.

"It is small, but there are features in the cranium, the back end of the skull, and a few features in the pelvis that are quite distinct amongst all other known species of Thescelosaurus," said Tim Tokaryk, head of palaeontology for the Royal Saskatchewan Museum Monday.

"So based on those central features, that’s what made it a new species."

Tokaryk said the dinosaur is about the size of a white-tailed deer.

"That’s pretty small for a dinosaur in general. I mean T. Rex, which this thing would have had to avoid, was quite large.

"We know there were small dinosaurs around at that time because we found fragments, we find teeth and such like that. But to find a partial skeleton of one individual, that makes it interesting and also makes it more useful to be able to identify it as a new species or a species in general."

The specimen was collected from the Frenchman River Valley near Eastend in 1968 but was only identified recently when Caleb Brown, a master’s student from the University of Calgary, studied the bones for his thesis.