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Monday, Januar y 22, 2024 | Vo l u m e 1 2 8 | I s s u e 2 1
Air Quality Control Board v. City of Albuquerque By Nate Bernard
Board sues City over adopted legislation
@DailyLobo The Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board is taking the City of Albuquerque to court per a lawsuit filed on Dec. 5. In November, the Albuquerque City Council abolished and recreated the Air Quality Control Board which removed city-appointed members and suspended the board’s actions till Feb. 1. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, the Board’s attorney, is calling the legality of these actions into question. The hearing is set for Jan. 25. If the Board is successful, there will be a pause on the City Council’s changes and the terminated Board members will be reinstated until the court makes a final judgment on the legality of the legislation. If the Board loses the lawsuit, the City’s changes would go into effect, according to Sedillo Lopez. “I want to put a pause on the enforcement of the resolution and the ordinance until the legality of them can be sorted out,” Sedillo Lopez said.
Sedillo Lopez filed a preliminary injunction, which is a court order that preserves the status quo before the court makes a final judgment on the issue, according to Cornell Law School. While making substantial changes, the Albuquerque City Council acted without the approval of the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners. Given the Board’s position with both Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, this could violate a joint powers agreement, the filing Sedillo Lopez wrote states. Attorneys for the County will be working in conjunction with the Air Quality Control Board’s attorney, however they will focus on the City’s potential overreach and not the termination of Board members, Sedillo Lopez said. “Our contention at the County is that neither the County nor the City can unilaterally change the Board,” County Commissioner Eric Olivas said. “We have to be in agreement because the authority was specifically delegated to the Joint Powers, not to one or the other.” The filing also states that each Board member has a right
to complete their term and can only be removed with a pattern of absences, which no current members meet. The resolution creating the moratorium also violates the existing ordinance that requires the City to provide staff for the Board, which makes the resolution void, Sedillo Lopez said. “A resolution is an internal policy document and doesn’t have the force of law,” Sedillo Lopez said. “The resolution violated an existing ordinance, because there is an ordinance that provides that the City will support the Board.” The filing will be heard at court at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21 at the Albuquerque District Court. “It violates state law, is an overreach by the City Council and it’s an overreach that violated
Katrina Estrada / @rinaphoto / Daily Lobo
View of Downtown Albuquerque from University of New Mexico’s North Campus on Sunday, Jan. 21.
(the) agreement it had with the County,” Sedilla Lopez said.
Nate Bernard is a freelance reporter with the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo. com or on Twitter @DailyLobo
Swimmers splash into Senior Day
New dinosaur unlocked By Lily Alexander
Lauren Lifke @llilyalexander
@lauren_lifke Researchers have put a name to a dinosaur fossil discovered in New Mexico in the 1980s, identifying a new species of Tyrannosaurus that pre-dates the T. rex. The findings were published Jan. 11 in the Scientific Reports journal. New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science Curator of Paleontology, Spencer Lewis, and the museum’s executive director, Anthony Fiorillo, both are co-authors on the study. The identification of Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis changes what paleontologists previously understood about the geographical origin of the T. rex. The standing idea, Lucas said, is the T. rex originated in Asia and immigrated over a land bridge to get to North America. “This fossil doesn’t fit that story,” Lucas said. “This fossil now shows us a Tyrannosaurus that’s much older, geologically, in North America, and it’s even in the southern part of North America.
So it raises the question: maybe Tyrannosaurus originated in what’s now the southwest.” The fossil, a partial skull piece, was originally discovered on the eastern shore of Elephant Butte Reservoir in 1983 and categorized as a T. rex. In 2016, Sebastian Dalman – a former student of Lucas and one of the authors of the study – observed the fossil and said he did not believe it was a T. rex. From there, Lucas said he, Dalman and Forillo connected with other paleontologists and decided to write an article about the new species. The Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis is believed to have existed about 6 million years before the T. rex, according to Lucas. “When the fossil was first discovered, we weren’t sure exactly what its geologic age (was). Now, we have a much better handle,” Lucas said. Paleontologists now ponder the relationship between T. rex and T. mcraeensis, as they do not know what happened in the 6 million year gap, Lucas said. Unlike the T. rex, the T. mcraeensis had a long and lowset lower jaw. The T. rex had a
Ella Daniel/ @ella_daniel7/ Daily Lobo
Jordan Foster competes in the Women’s SO Free Swim against the University of Wyoming on Friday, Jan. 20. (see more on pg. 6)
larger, taller jaw, which means the bite force of the two species varied, according to Lucas. T. mcraeensis also lacked the T. rex’s characteristic ridge on its skull, Lucas said. Such types of ridges are thought of as display structures, which help animals recognize each other. They were important for T. rex mating and behavior. “It is worth noting that these differences are subtle, but the differences between species are often relatively subtle,” the study reads. T. mcraeensis were about the same size – up to 40 feet long and 12 feet tall – as these dinosaur species ate meat, according to a press release by NMMNHS.
Historically, New Mexico has been a prime location for dinosaur discoveries because of its dry climate, Lucas said. The lack of vegetation and soil provides ideal conditions for a rich fossil record. “New Mexicans have always known our state is special, now we know that New Mexico has been a special place for tens of millions of years,” Fiorillo said in the press release. The partial skull of the T. mcraeensis is currently available for public viewing at NMMNHS. To continue research on the T. mcraeensis, Lucas said the next step is to go back into the field and search for more evidence.
“This is the typical story of paleontology. We never have enough fossils,” Lucas said. “Where there’s one, there’s got to be more.” Lily Alexander is the news editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @llilyalexander Lauren Lifke is a beat reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @lauren_lifke