Maryland is one of only 8 states that have designated a state dinosaur. We were the 5th state to do so, after Colorado and New Jersey started a trend in the 1980s and 90s. But only Maryland has the astrodon as its prehistoric symbol.
A hundred and 40 years before our state chose the astrodon, Maryland’s agricultural chemist Philip T. Tyson was producing the area’s first geologic map of Maryland. His work brought him Prince George's County and he did some digging in an open-pit iron mine. There, he discovered our region’s first dinosaur fossils.
