Wyoming
Meet North America’s oldest dino: Found in Wyoming, named in Shoshone language – WyoFile
On a tract of public land near Dubois, an extrusion of very old rock — known as the lower Popo Agie Formation — peeks out of a hillside. To the unskilled eye, it just looks like a patch of pinkish-red rocks amid the grassy slopes.
But in 2013, a team of scientists who specialize in ancient history visited the site and found much more. The extrusion was rife with fossils, enough to keep the scientists busy for the dozen years that have since passed. Along with revisiting the site to look for more samples, the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum team has been doing painstaking work to date the rock and recreate the creatures’ bones that were fossilized there.
What they found is remarkable: North America’s oldest-known dinosaur. The discovery brought scientific advances that revise the understanding of reptile evolution on the planet. It also broke a long scientific naming tradition with a nod to Wyoming’s Indigenous people.
Meet Ahvaytum bahndooiveche. The dinosaur is slightly larger than a chicken, with a long tail, beaklike mouth and feathers. It lived a very, very long time ago: 230 million years in the past.
Along with being the oldest known dinosaur found in North America, it’s also the first dinosaur named in the Shoshone language — scientists teamed up with Eastern Shoshone tribal members on the project.
“So that’s kind of the back side of this story that, to me, is the most important,” said Dr. David Lovelace, a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum who co-led the work with graduate student Aaron Kufner. “And then just the icing on the cake is that the dinosaur itself is a big deal. Scientifically, we didn’t quite recognize how big it was until we got actual radioisotopic ages.”
Bones and stones
Lovelace grew up in Casper. He originally set out to become a nurse after high school, but Casper College geology professor Kent Sundell opened his world to paleontology, he said, and he never turned back. “I love bones and stones.”
Once he finished his doctorate, he became a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum. On his very first field season, he took students to the Wyoming site — “a tiny little pocket of exposure that was surrounded by much, much younger rock.” They discovered the Ahvaytum fossils on the ground surface during that first trip.
Such a notable discovery with so little effort is very lucky, Lovelace said.
But it’s not totally random. Lovelace was driven by a curiosity about the Popo Agie Formation, which he said is “one of the most understudied late Triassic rock units in the U.S.”
Because of factors like access, the Popo Agie is a difficult layer to study compared to other Triassic outcrops, like ones in the desert Southwest, he said. As a result, there is a lot of knowledge about the Southwest rocks and fossils, and not so much about the Wyoming ones.
“And so even knowing how the Wyoming Triassic correlated, how it is related to those rocks, was not studied at all,” he said. “So that’s been my passion, trying to solve that problem.”
The team found fossils of leg bones on the first prospecting trip, and knew very quickly that it was a dinosaur and Wyoming’s oldest, Lovelace said. But because “nobody knew the age of the Popo Agie,” they didn’t know how ancient it was.
“It literally had, like a 30-million-year potential range of what it could be,” he said. “Just off the bat, we had Wyoming’s oldest dinosaur. We knew that that could have been a thing and been pretty cool. But my study, or my interest, is to really dig deep and kind of flesh out the whole story.”
In order to pin down the dino’s age, he said, he and his team needed to precisely date the rocks. It took years of painstaking work to conduct the stratigraphy — the study of rock strata — and analyze the fossils of both Ahvaytum and other species they discovered. Ultimately, the team dated the dinosaur fossil at 230 million years.
The dino’s age is remarkable because it challenges the mainstream view on how reptiles emerged, with evidence that they were present in the Northern Hemisphere millions of years earlier than previously understood.
“When we saw that,” Lovelace said, “it kind of blew our minds.”
What’s in a name
When publishing about the new dinosaur, Lovelace’s team began going down the traditional path dictated by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, which stipulates the use of Latin and character style and often honors a notable scientist.
At the time, there was a lot of social reckoning taking place, Lovelace said, and his team started thinking about the ancestral land where the fossils were discovered. They reached out to their campus tribal liaison, who connected the team with the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes.
“That started a partnership that’s still ongoing,” Lovelace said.
The team worked with tribal elders and school groups, visiting the site together and exchanging knowledge. And in the end, the dinosaur was named in the language of the Eastern Shoshone, whose ancestral lands include the discovery site. Elders like Reba Teran were instrumental in helping identify the terms.
Ahvaytum bahndooiveche broadly translates to “long ago dinosaur” in the Shoshone language. Several tribal members are named as co-authors in the published work. That includes Teran and Amanda LeClair-Diaz, the Indian education coordinator at Fort Washakie School.
“The continuous relationship developed between Dr. Lovelace, his team, our school district and our community is one of the most important outcomes of the discovery and naming of Ahvaytum bahndooiveche,” LeClair-Diaz said in a news release.
“Typically, the research process in communities, especially Indigenous communities, has been one sided, with the researchers fully benefiting from studies,” LeClair-Diaz continued. “The work we have done with Dr. Lovelace breaks this cycle and creates an opportunity for reciprocity in the research process.”
The old way of naming was often divorced from the communities of people connected to the land or species, Lovelace said. “But our philosophy is that it needs to go a lot more beyond just kind of naming it after something. We really want to incorporate that community.”
Diminutive cousin
Though the dinosaur is small, Lovelace’s team believes Ahvaytum bahnooiveche is likely related to sauropods, a group of enormous herbivorous dinosaurs that included well-known titanosaurs.
His best guess is that the Ahvaytum lived in a landscape much like present-day coastal Texas, he said, with periods of both wetness and aridity. Although scientists haven’t found its skull material, based on other similar dinosaurs, it was likely omnivorous.
The discovery site has also been a source of fossils for a new species of amphibian, other dinosaur fossils and notable tracks. And, Lovelace said, “there’s still work to be done.”
It goes to show the depth of knowledge that can be gained with some curiosity — even in what appears to be an unremarkable patch of rocky soil in the middle of Wyoming.
“There’s so much history tied up in the rocks,” Lovelace said.
The top boys’ basketball players in Wyoming for Classes 1A and 2A were chosen for the 2026 high school season. The Wyoming Coaches Association has unveiled the all-state awards for this year, as voted on by the head coaches in the two classifications, respectively. The Wyoming Coaches Association only recognizes one team for all-state, and only these players receive an award certificate from the WCA. WyoPreps only lists all-state players as defined by the WCA.
WCA 1A-2A BOYS BASKETBALL ALL-STATE SELECTIONS IN 2026
Each class selected 14 players for all-state, reflecting a broad recognition of talent across Wyoming. Notably, congratulations go to Hulett’s Kyle Smith, Brady Cook from Lingle-Fort Laramie, and Carsten Freeburg from Pine Bluffs, who earned all-state honors for the third straight year. In addition, eight more players achieved all-state status for the second time in their prep careers.
Class 1A
Paul McNiven – Burlington
Bitner Philpott – Burlington
Ammon Hatch – Cokeville (All-State in 2025)
Hudson Himmerich – Cokeville
Kyle Smith – Hulett (All-State 2024 & 2025)
Anthony Arnusch – Lingle-Ft. Laramie
Brady Cook – Lingle-Ft. Laramie (All-State 2024 & 2025)
Tymber Cozzens – Little Snake River (All-State in 2025)
Corbin Matthews – Lusk
Max Potas – Meeteetse (All-State in 2024)
Jace Westring – Saratoga
Hazen Williams – Saratoga
TJ Moats – Southeast (All-State in 2024)
Nic Schiller – Upton
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Class 2A
Caleb Adsit – Big Horn
Chase Garber – Big Horn
Carsten Freeburg – Pine Bluffs (All-State 2024 & 2025)
Mason Moss – Rocky Mountain
Oakley Hicks – Shoshoni
Kade Mills – Sundance
Cody Bomengen – Thermopolis (All-State in 2025)
Zak Hastie – Thermopolis
Ellis Webber – Thermopolis (All-State in 2025)
Joseph Kimbrell – Wright
Mitchell Strohschein – Wright (All-State in 2025)
Adriano Brown – Wyoming Indian
Heeyei’Niitou Monroe-Black – Wyoming Indian (All-State in 2025)
Cordell Spoonhunter – Wyoming Indian
The 2026 state champions were the Saratoga Panthers in Class 1A. They beat Lingle-Fort Laramie, 50-45, in the championship game. The 2A winners were the Thermopolis Bobcats, who repeated as champions, after a 45-38 victory over Wyoming Indian in the title game.
Lusk versus Rock River high school basketball 2026
Game action between the Tigers and Longhorns
Gallery Credit: Courtesy: Lisa Shaw
A pair of bills signed into law last week aim to build out a more comprehensive system of literacy education across Wyoming’s public schools.
One mandates evidence-based practices and requires regular screenings for dyslexia, while the other enables the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) to hire a dedicated literacy professional to oversee statewide compliance.
Gov. Mark Gordon’s signing of both bills on Friday was the latest accomplishment of an ongoing push for improved literacy standards. That push has been spearheaded by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder.
“Wyoming is not going to let a single child fall through the cracks,” Degenfelder said during a public bill signing last week. “We are not going to fall behind when it comes to ensuring that our children can read at grade level.”
The primary bill, Senate File 59, establishes a statewide K-12 program for teaching students to read that is built on “evidence based language and literacy instruction, assessment, intervention and professional development that supports educators, engages families and promotes literacy proficiency for all Wyoming students.”
The bill defines evidence-based strategies as those that conform to the science of reading, a term that will be defined and updated by Degenfelder’s office. Nationwide, it generally means putting academic research into practice in classrooms. SF 59 specifically prohibits the exclusive use of “three-cueing” — a strategy once widely employed to teach reading but which education experts now say is outdated and less effective than other strategies.
It also requires annual dyslexia screeners for students below the third grade, and testing for reading difficulties for all students.
The screeners are used to identify the severity of reading difficulties in order to direct “tiered” support that offers the most intensive interventions to the students most in need, while still providing “evidence based” language instruction to all students.
Each school district must formulate an individualized reading plan “for each student identified as having reading difficulties or at risk for poor reading outcomes.”
Districts must now report to the state annually regarding their literacy-related work. Any district where 60% or more of the students are struggling will be required to implement “summer literacy camps or extended supports, including after school support and tutoring.”
The bill also requires literacy related professional development for teachers and specialists “appropriate to their role and level of responsibility” related to literacy education.
SF 59 was backed by dyslexia advocates and literacy specialists.
Senate File 14, the other literacy bill signed into law Friday, appropriates $120,000 annually for the next two years for a full-time position at WDE “to assist school districts in implementing a reading assessment and intervention program and language and literacy programs.”
Both bills go into effect July 1.
LARAMIE — The University of Wyoming and the Mountain West Conference announced the Cowboys’ 2026 football schedule Monday, a slate that opens with the Border War and concludes with back-to-back home games in Laramie.
Wyoming opens the season Sept. 5 on the road against Colorado State in the 118th edition of the Border War. The Cowboys then host Northern Colorado on Sept. 12 in the home opener before traveling to Central Michigan on Sept. 19.
The Cowboys begin Mountain West play Sept. 26 at home against Hawaii in a matchup for the Paniolo Trophy. Wyoming then faces back-to-back road games at North Dakota State on Oct. 3 and San Jose State on Oct. 10.
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Wyoming returns to War Memorial Stadium on Oct. 17 to host conference newcomer Northern Illinois before facing Air Force at home on Oct. 24. The Cowboys will have an open week on Oct. 31.
The Cowboys open November with road games at UNLV on Nov. 7 and at UTEP on Nov. 14, marking Wyoming’s first meeting with the Miners as members of the Mountain West. Wyoming closes conference play by hosting New Mexico on Nov. 21 and wraps up the regular season with a nonconference game against UConn on Nov. 28 in Laramie.
Each Mountain West team will play four home and four road conference games during the 13-week season, which will conclude with the Mountain West Football Championship Game featuring the two teams with the highest conference winning percentages. The championship game date will be announced later.
With the conference schedule set, Mountain West television partners CBS Sports, FOX Sports, and The CW will begin selecting broadcast games, which could include moving some contests to non-Saturday dates. Network assignments and kickoff times will be announced at a later date.
Season ticket renewals for the 2026 Wyoming football season are now available. Fans can renew their tickets online by visiting gowyo.com/tickets and logging into their account.
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