Eastern dinosaurs are hard to find. Between geologic happenstance, suburban sprawl, and forests that blanket what would otherwise be promising outcrop, we know frustratingly little about the dinosaurs of Appalachia compared to their relatives exposed in the deserts to the west. But every now and then paleontologists are able to pull a prize out of the difficult eastern exposures. The hadrosaur Eotrachodon is one such case.

Paleontologists  Albert Prieto-Márquez​, Gregory Erickson, and Jun Ebersole named the dinosaur earlier this year from bones found in Alabama. The remains are pretty scrappy, which is typical for Appalachian finds, but Eotrachodon is nevertheless known from a nearly-complete skull that provides a rich source of