DINOSAUR SPECIES NAMED FOR TWIN SCIENTISTS

sci-tech-today.com

Celina Suarez and her twin sister, Marina, had always hoped they’d find dinosaur bones in the backyard of their childhood home in San Antonio, Texas.
The pair never found any dinosaur bones behind their home. But they have found dinosaur bones — more than once. It was their find in Utah in 2004 that led to the naming of a new species of dinosaur after the sisters, both now 29-year-old geochemists doing post-doctoral research.

“We’re very honored,” said Celina Suarez, who is doing research at Boise State University. Her sister, Marina, is a researcher at Johns Hopkins University. The sisters are identical, mirror-image twins (“She’s a leftie, and I’m a rightie,” Celina said.)

At the time of their big find, they were both Temple University master’s students working on a summer excavation project near Green River, Utah, with the Utah Geological Survey. While investigating the sediment near the site, they came across a gulley with rocks that had bones sticking out.

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