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Everyone thinks the
name is some kind
of Clinton joke, but
this is a real dinosaur
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 Chapter 13
 Arkansaurus fridayi,
An Arkansas dinosaur
FOSSILIZED FOOT bones of an early Cretaceous therapod were discovered by J. B. Friday on his farm in 1972. The bones were donated by Mr. Friday to the University of Arkansas.
Dr. James H. Quinn, then of the University Geology Department, prepared the bones and took them to a National Meeting of Vertebrate Paleontologists in Lincoln, Nebraska where they were examined by experts from both the US and Europe.
After returning from this meeting, Dr. Quinn and Benjamin Clardy, of the Arkansas Geological Commission, visited the discovery site near Locksburg in Sevier County in hopes of recovering additional bones.
model in the photo above by Vance Pleasant, Arkansas Geological Commission
The site was a shallow gravel pit near Highway 24, about one mile west of the community of Locksburg. Several hours of searching resulted in one additional toe bone being recovered. It is thought that either the bones were scattered prior to burial or removed and lost during excavation of the site for road material. The bones were recovered from the upper portion of the Trinity Group, which was capped at this site by a Quaternary terrace gravel bed.
Dr. Quinn described the beast as being an Ornithomimid and named it in honor of the State and Mr. Friday. However, recent discoveries of more complete skeletons of a then unknown group of dinosaurs (raptors) in Colorado lends credence to the theory that Arkansaurus fridayi may have been in this group, and was a more aggressive carnivorous hunter than those dinosaurs we call Ornithomimids, much like the velociraptors of Jurassic Park notoriety.
One major difference between these two types of dinosaurs is that the Ornithomimids had no teeth, but a horn-like bill, whereas the raptors had teeth typical of carnivores. Unfortunately, no teeth have ever been recovered from this site so we have an unsolved mystery concerning this dinosaur.
Mr. J.B. Friday was looking for a lost cow on his place when he found these bones instead. Here he shows a model of the foot given to him by Dr. Quinn.
Why the name? Arkansaurus for the state of course, and fridayi because the finder was generous enough to donate the bones to science.
Newspaper photos from the Nashville News, March 1973
Bone digging at the site by Ben Clardy, left, and Dr. Quinn during March, 1973.
Regrettably, most of the dinosaur was never discovered, and its bones may now be part of Arkansas Highway 24 near Lockesburg, AR.
The latest research on the Arkansas dinosaur is being conducted by paleontologists with Dinosaur National Monument, Dan Chure, Rebecca Hunt, and Carson Davis. They believe this dinosaur is a relative of Ornithomimus, although our creature is a primitive specimen and would be the oldest known representative of this group.
The specimen appears to be closely associated with the Early Cretaceous therapods Harpymimus Elaphrosaurus. The specimen provides further knowledge of a poorly understood radiation of Early Cretaceous primitive coelurosaurians east of the Western Interior Seaway (Proceedings Journal of the 2003 Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference, pp87-103).
 Ch 13
Contact the authors of Rockhounding Arkansas revised Feb 2004
©Rockhounding Arkansas 1998 http://rockhoundingAR.com
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