It's what every paleontologist dreams of, finding a brand new species of dinosaur.

Congratulations to Andre Lujan, he discovered on a dig near the Texas/Mexico border a brand new species of dinosaur. It has been identified it as a type of ankylosaur. “Its an armored dinosaur,” said Lujan. “It’s a four-legged dinosaur. A tetrapod. A herbivore, so it eats plants. But imagine a cross between a horny toad, and an armadillo with a giant boney club on the end of its tail.”

Discovering a new type of dinosaur is amazing in itself. Even more good news for Andre, he has the most complete, southernmost ankylosaur ever discovered in the United States. Also it is the most complete ankylosaur from north of the Mexican border where we discovered ours to the tip of South America.

The fossil has been examined since it was unearthed in 2017 and many experts agree this is a new species. Now begins the hard part, piecing the dinosaur together, which is an expensive process.

“So we need funding to go out in the field to continue excavating to hopefully find more of this dinosaur,” said Lujan. “We need funding to get scientific dating of the sediment so that we can nail down the exact age of this dinosaur. And to do some quarry mapping, some 3-D imaging technology and so a professional reconstruction so we have a life size replica of what this dinosaur would look like.”

If you want to check out more on dinosaurs here in Texas. Andre is a curator for the Texas Through Time museum in Hillsboro, Texas. Definitely looks like a cool place for the dinosaur lover in your life.

More From 92.9 NiN