Is it a crocodile? A bird?

Technically, it’s a species of rhynchosaur, a distant relative of modern birds and crocodiles with a beak-like mouth that existed over 200 million years ago – the fossils of which scientists unearthed from the exposed rocks of the Popo Agie Formation tucked in the northern Rocky Mountains in central Wyoming.

It’s not every day you get to apply your language skills to a newly discovered dinosaur species.

But middle school students in the Fremont County School District on the Wind River Reservation did just that, working with tribal elders last spring to come up with a Shoshone name for the species, which was unearthed outside Dubois. (The name can’t be revealed since research about the discovery hasn’t been released.)