Where were the first mososaur fossils discovered?
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Around 1765 the skull of a "Mosasaurus" was discovered here in a limestone quarry, one of the first recognised reptile fossils, which was later acquired by the Teylers Museum in Haarlem. A more famous "Mosasaurus" fossil was found between 1770 and 1774 but was confiscated by the French in 1794 and is now in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. Later dinosaur remains were discovered here as well, belonging to "Betasuchus" and "Orthomerus", as well as turtles and fossils of smaller creatures of the sea.
Mount Saint Peter
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Mosasaurs (from Latin "Mosa" meaning the 'Meuse river', and Greek σαύρος "sauros" meaning 'lizard') are an extinct group of large marine reptiles containing 38 genera in total. Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on the Meuse in 1764. Mosasaurs probably evolved from an extinct group of aquatic lizards known as aigialosaurs in the Early Cretaceous. During the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous period (Turonian-Maastrichtian ages), with the extinction of the ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs, mosasaurs became the dominant marine predators. They became extinct as a result of the K-Pg event at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago.
Mosasaur
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Ichthyosaur fossils of the species "Shonisaurus popularis" were first discovered in the area in 1928. Excavations were conducted through the 1960s, and the remains of approximately 40 ichthyosaurs were found. Until 2004, these remains included the largest ichthyosaurs ever discovered. Several specimens were left where they were found, and can be viewed by the public. These specimens are protected from the elements by a large barn. The fossils are about a 10-minute drive from the Berlin ghost town. The ichthyosaur fossils were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1973.
Berlin–Ichthyosaur State Park
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The first documented fossils to be recovered from the Bridger Formation were discovered on 11 August 1849 by Captain Howard Stansbury, who documented the discovery of fossilized shells and wood in his expedition report while scouting out the region for the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. In the early-1860s, trapper Jack Robinson claimed to have discovered a number of sites along the base of the Uinta Mountains where grizzly bears had been turned to stone. When these claims were called into question by judge William A. Carter, Robinson brought Carter a bag filled with the fossils. One of the specimens recovered by Robinson was a well-preserved skull which resembled that of a grizzly bear. Judger Carter invited Louis Agassiz to observe the local strata, but Agassiz declined as the journey would have involved riding horseback to the site, a mode of transportation Agassiz abhorred. Carter's son-in-law, Dr. J. Van A. Carter, would go on to send a number of fossils to palaeontologist Joseph Leidy at the University of Pennsylvania in 1869. These fossils included the first Bridgerian fossil taxa, "Omomys carteri"; and the skull discovered by Robinson, which was described as "Palaeosyops paludosus". Another researcher responsible for sending off specimens was Dr. Joseph K. Corson, a close friend of Leidy's who hosted him and his family on two three to Fort Bridger in 1872, 1873, and 1879.
Bridger Formation
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It was named after Morrison, Colorado, where the first fossils in the formation were discovered by Arthur Lakes in 1877. That same year, it became the center of the Bone Wars, a fossil-collecting rivalry between early paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope. In Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, the Morrison Formation was a major source of uranium ore.
Morrison Formation
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Infant and juvenile fossils of "Mussaurus" were first discovered by an expedition led by Jose Bonaparte during the 1970s to the El Tranquilo Formation. There the team found fossilized eggs and hatchlings, which added insight into the reproductive strategies of "Mussaurus" and other sauropodomorph dinosaurs. The first adult specimens of "Mussaurus" were described in 2013. Some of these specimens had first been described in 1980 and were originally attributed to the genus "Plateosaurus".
Mussaurus
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Among the first scientists to explore the Muirkirk Deposit was Maryland state geologist Phillip Thomas Tyson. He brought some of the strange bones discovered in the iron mines to a meeting of the Maryland Academy of Sciences in 1859, where his colleagues identified them as dinosaurs. Paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh was also interested in Maryland fossils. In the winter of 1887, he sent John Bell Hatcher to search the iron mines. Hatcher recovered hundreds of fossils, including the remains of ancient turtles and crocodiles. In the 1890s, Smithsonian Institution scientists Charles Gilmore and Arthur Bibbins also visited Prince George's County, uncovering dinosaur teeth and other fossils that were added to the Smithsonian collection.
Dinosaur Park (Prince George's County, Maryland)
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One of the first major fossil finds of the 20th century in Pennsylvania was the 1902 discovery of dinosaur tracks at a fisher's Quarry near Graterford in Montgomery County. Another prominent early 1900s discovery was a lower jaw from the amphibian "Calamops" was discovered in the Late Triassic Stockton Formation at Holicong. This is the oldest vertebrate fossil from either the Hartford or Newark Basins. In 1923 the Reading Railroad tunnel at Gwynned was converted into an open cut, exposing many Late Triassic fossils. Later, in 1933, two "Anchisauripus" tracks were discovered near Yocumtown in York County. Dinosaur tracks dating back to the Late Triassic were discovered near the Gettysburg battle sites in 1933.
Paleontology in Pennsylvania
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Additional remains of "Simosaurus" were found in Franconia and Württemberg in Germany. Duke William of Württemberg discovered a complete skull and sent it to von Meyer in 1842. Von Meyer named "S. guilelmi" on the basis of this skull, noting that it was smaller and narrower than those of the type species. A complete skeleton first referred to "S. guilelmi" has been designated the neotype of "Simosaurus". Some German fossils have been found in the stratigrafically younger Keuper deposits, but are very rare. "Simosaurus" is present in biozones of the Muschelkalk that are distinguished by different ammonite fauna. "Simosaurus" first appears in the "nodosus" biozone, where fossils of the ammonite "Ceratites nodosus" are abundant. Specimens becomescommon in the slightly younger "dorsoplanus" biozone, characterized by the ammonite "Ceratites dorsoplanus".
Simosaurus
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Some of the first scientifically documented fossil finds in Vermont occurred in the mid-19th century. In 1848 men working on the railroad in Rutland County uncovered the tusk, teeth, and bones of a mammoth. In 1849 the complete skeleton of a primitive whale was discovered. Since then, it has been locally known as the 'Charlotte Whale'. Like the 1848 mammoth remains, this find also occurred at the railroad. However, this find occurred in a Chittenden County Rutland Railroad cut near the town of Charlotte. In 1950, an abundance of fossils were discovered on the Connecticut River three miles southwest of Claremont, New Hampshire. These included corals, brachiopods, crinoids, cephalopods, and a possible trilobite. The fossils date back to the Silurian or Devonian periods. More recently, in 1993, the Pleistocene Beluga whale "Delphinapterus leucas" was designated the Vermont state fossil. In 2014, the 1848 mammoth tooth and tusk were designated as the state terrestrial fossils of Vermont, with the beluga whale skeleton being redesignated as the state marine fossil. The beluga whale is permanantly housed at the Perkins Geology Museum in Burlington, with the mammoth remains housed at the Mount Holly Community Historical Museum in Belmont.
Paleontology in Vermont
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The first publicized discovery of a partial fossil mosasaur skull in 1764 by quarry workers in a subterranean gallery of a limestone quarry in Mount Saint Peter, near the Dutch city of Maastricht, preceded any major dinosaur fossil discoveries, but remained little known. However, a second find of a partial skull drew the Age of Enlightenment's attention to the existence of fossilized animals that were different from any known living creatures. When the specimen was discovered between 1770 and 1774, Johann Leonard Hoffmann, a surgeon and fossil collector, corresponded about it with the most influential scientists of his day, making the fossil famous. The original owner, though, was Godding, a canon of Maastricht cathedral.
Mosasaur