Casa Grande Students Make Big Discovery At Utah Dig

Published: Friday, May 23, 2014 - 4:05pm
Audio icon Download mp3 (1.4 MB)
(Courtesy of Rob Gay)
The Crosbysaurus tooth found by Rob Gay and his students in Utah.

A few weeks ago, we heard from Rob Gay — he’s a paleontologist and teacher at Mission Heights Preparatory High School in Casa Grande. He was taking his class to Utah for a dig, and they actually found something big. Scientifically big — physically, it’s actually pretty small.

It’s a tooth from what Gay calls an “enigmatic reptile,” known as Crosbysaurus. He says scientists don’t know what the animal looked like, since they’ve only ever found their teeth.

But what makes this discovery important is its location: before now, these teeth have only been found in Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, not Utah.

Gay says the tooth is triangular, with large serrations on the back and smaller ones on the front.

The Show