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SALT LAKE CITY — A bill to designate the Utahraptor as the state dinosaur sailed through a House committee Thursday.
Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, sponsor of SB43, told the committee that the Allosaurus was chosen as the state fossil because it was found in Utah.
When "Jurassic Park" hit theaters in 1993, it depicted raptors that were easily 7 feet tall, Bramble said. But the only raptor fossils known at the time were the size of large turkeys. Then, the Utahraptor was found three months later, he said, offering evidence of raptors of the size depicted in "Jurassic Park."
The House Political Subdivisions Committee unanimously forwarded the bill to the full House.
"There is no controversy, since the epic battle between the Allosaurus and the raptor was avoided," the committee's chairman, Rep. Dixon Pitcher, R-Ogden, remarked in closing. "Peace was found throughout the land."
— Preston Cathcart