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Turkey-Like Dinosaur Once Roamed Utah

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From Times staff and wire reports

Fossils found in southern Utah five years ago are from a dinosaur that resembled a brightly colored, 7-foot-tall turkey that could run up to 25 mph when it roamed Earth about 75 million years ago, paleontologists at the University of Utah said Tuesday.

Scientists are calling the dinosaur Hagryphus giganteus, or giant, four-footed, birdlike god of the Western desert. Much smaller variations of this dinosaur had been found only in Montana, South Dakota and the Canadian province of Alberta. Finding the fossils in southern Utah doubles the range that this group of raptors is thought to have inhabited.

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