Minn. paleontologist set to name new dinosaur species

A Minnesota paleontologist will soon name a species of long-necked dinosaur that once lived off the coast of Africa.

Kristi Curry Rogers, former curator of paleontology at the Science Museum of Minnesota, has been working for 10 years to try to identify the new species.

Now at Macalester College in St. Paul, Rogers says it's an honor to name the species, but also a challenge.

"This is a long-standing problem for paleontologists," she said. "It's sort of a historical problem that we always have to deal with because the first named of anything is not necessarily the best example of what that thing might be."

Rogers says the discovery of the animal's skull in Madagascar is the key to its identity. She has worked in Madagascar, where she says there were two different species of long-neck dinosaurs. One was named by a French paleontologist in 1896.

Listen to an interview with Kristi Curry Rogers on Midmorning.

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