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Scientists Have Pieced Together The Skeleton Of An Adorable New Dinosaur

Meet "Ava."

Move over, Indominus rex - there’s a new dino in town.

Paleontologist Mike Triebold first started digging up the bones of a previously unknown species of dinosaur in 2012, when he and his team started work in the Judith River formation in Montana. At first, they didn’t realize what they had on their hands; they assumed that the skeleton belonged to an avaceratops, so they nicknamed the specimen “Ava."

Turns out Ava is in a league all her own. After finding an 85 percent-complete skeleton of the dinosaur, Triebold realized that this was no avaceratops. It’s not an example of the better-known triceratops, either -- this dino roamed the earth 9 million years before the popular three-horned lizard, though they could be distant relatives.

Four paleontology experts have confirmed that Triebold has stumbled upon an entirely new species. So what does Ava look like? “A fat pony with a big head and horns,” Triebold told CNN.

Rock Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center

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That sounds a lot friendlier than anything Chris Pratt has ever had to wrangle. If we actually end up bringing dinosaurs back from the dead someday, maybe we should start with Ava.

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