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UNLV Paleontologists Make Historic Find Not Far From Las Vegas

A UNLV paleontology student has made a major find.

The discovery itself was made a couple years ago but just recently published in a scientific journal. And one of the names in the journal is Margarita Rodriguez, an undergraduate student at the time of the discovery. Rodriguez discovered ancient algae that are more than 560-million years old at a Deep Springs location in Esmerelda County. Rodriguez was given the rights to name the algae, which she named Elainabella deepspringensis - after her mentor.

UNLV paleontologist Steve Rowland says this discovery is bigger than finding any dinosaur bones. The sample will be housed at the research collection at the Nevada State Museum in Las Vegas for other researchers to study.
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