Arizona has a state bird, the Cactus Wren. It also has a state flower, fish and now Arizona might just get an official dinosaur thanks to an 11-year-old.
Jax Weldon wrote Governor Doug Ducey with the idea. The governor liked it and now a bill is making its way through the state legislature to make the Sonorasaurus Arizona's official dinosaur.
Representative Kate Brophy McGee is the main sponsor of the bill. Besides what she believes is a good idea, the lawmaker says it helps teach young people the process of how things work at the capitol.
"The need to learn the process," said Brophy McGee. "They need to understand the process of how a bill becomes law - how an idea becomes a bill."
Other states do have an official dinosaur so Arizona would not be the first. There was another attempt in the 1990's to give Arizona an official dinosaur but the bill died making its way through the legislature.
This time dozens of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have signed on for their support. Fossils of the Sonorasaurus were found in Southern Arizona by an Arizona geologist looking for petrified wood. Fully grown, the dinosaur would have stood 29-feet tall and been about 40-feet long.
