Meet 'Auggie,' California's Official State Dinosaur, At Natural History Museum, L.A. Co.

LOS ANGELES – California is known for having a grizzly bear as its state animal and a quail as its state bird but as of Saturday the state has an official dinosaur, which can be seen at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law a bill designating the duck-billed hadrosaur Augustynolophus morrisi as the state's official dinosaur. Now nine states and Washington D.C. have official state dinosaurs.

The only two known fossil specimens of the dinosaur nicknamed "Auggie" are in the museum's Dinosaur Hall.

Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) introduced AB 1540 and created an official Twitter account @augustynolophus to promote "Auggie" as the state's dinosaur because it is "a Native Californian, Los Angeles Resident, older than Jerry Brown (barely), vegetarian and firm believer in science."

The Auggie campaign was more than the search for another state symbol, Bloom said.

"California elementary school students are excited about the prospect of 'Auggie' becoming the State Dinosaur. 'Auggie' has already gotten children engaged in the legislative process and excited about paleontology."

Augustynololphus morrisi (au-gus-tine-o-LOAF-us MORE-iss-ee) is only found in California, and it’s also the most complete dinosaur, of any species, ever found in the state, according to the museum. The only two fossil specimens of Augustynolophus in the world are at NHMLA's Dinosaur Hall on the second floor mezzanine.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is at 900 Exposition Blvd. in Los Angeles and is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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--City News Service contributed to this report/Image courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County