New dinosaur species named after Chamorro goddess

FONA herzogae, a recently discovered dinosaur species in Utah’s Cedar Mountains, is named after a Chamorro goddess.

The grandparents of paleontologist Haviv Avrahami, a member of the research team, are from Guam. He gave the dinosaur its genus name, Fona, based on the ancient Chamorro creation myth. The species name, herzogae, is in honor of Lisa Herzog, paleontology operations manager at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

According to a press release from North Carolina State University, where Avrahami is studying to earn his doctorate, Fona was a “small, herbivorous dinosaur.”

It had anatomical features that led scientists to believe the dinosaur could burrow and dig underground. It had “large biceps muscles, strong muscle attachments on the hips and legs, fused bones along the pelvis… and hind limbs that were proportionately larger than the forelimbs.”

Avrahami joked that the dinosaur looked like “a giant gopher mixed with a vegetarian crocodile, and also an ostrich.” He said it could walk on its two hind legs.

Avrahami told Variety that “one of the most extraordinary things” about Fona is that it was one of only two dinosaurs known to dig.

It also raised its young underground. Avrahami said predation may have driven the animals to seek shelter there. Fona was a “small” dinosaur — adults could grow up to six feet (2 meters) long from tail to snout, Avrahami said, adding that researchers were able to find many of its bones intact. He said its tendency to bury itself in the ground helped preserve it.

It was this connection to burials and fossilization that led Avrahami to draw a parallel between the dinosaur and the Chamorro creation story.

The name Fona comes from the Chamorro goddess Fo’na, who created the world from the body parts of her divine brother after he died. When her work was complete, Fo’na turned into a rock from which all people emerged.

In Avrahami’s scientific paper on Fona herzogae, he said that he and his team discovered two “subadult dinosaurs” at a site called the “Mini Troll” that could have been male and female or “perhaps siblings.” These specimens “fell into the earth where they… fossilized,” he said.

It took years for Avrahami to understand that Fona was a species of its own.

“I took all the bones of his skeleton and traveled around the world. I looked at some of his relatives and I was able to find out that these features were unique,” he said.

Avrahami called it an honor to name his first dinosaur after his own cultural heritage, as he himself said he had a “hunger for everything” related to Pacific culture.

He established the genus name Fona after consulting with Guam cultural experts including Dietrix Duhaylonsod, Jeremy Cepeda, Ralph Unpingco, and Brandon Cruz.

“We went to the creation story of the ancestors, because it is a story about beauty, about life, about creation, which is more like the life of Fona the dinosaur,” Avrahami said.

In addition to honoring its roots, naming the species based on indigenous culture is also an attempt to “decolonize” paleontology, he said, adding that Western science has many examples of “dark history.”

“There have been many Western, colonial powers that have dropped or parachuted into Native American territories and taken the minerals, fossils, dinosaurs out of Native American territories,” he told Variety. “They bring [specimens] back to their Western museums and it robs them of the cultural heritage and the natural heritage that exists on indigenous lands.”

Avrahami hopes that by honoring his indigenous culture, he can create a greater diversity of scientists in the future.

“Ultimately, I hope that this will inspire kids growing up to see indigenous cultures being represented more and more in science,” he said. “That there’s a place for all kinds of ethnicities and cultures to flourish. We’re trying to create a community that’s really accepting of many different cultures.”

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