page_title: Paleontology in North Dakota
section_title: Scientific research
hierarchical_section_title: Paleontology in North Dakota / History / Scientific research
caption_attribution_description: Triceratops horridus, a ceratopsian from the Late Cretaceous of North America, pencil drawing
context_page_description: Paleontology in North Dakota refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of North Dakota. During the early Paleozoic era most of North Dakota was covered by a sea home to brachiopods, corals, and fishes. The sea briefly left during the Silurian, but soon returned, until once more starting to withdraw during the Permian. By the Triassic some areas of the state were still under shallow seawater, but others were dry and hot. During the Jurassic subtropical forests covered the state. North Dakota was always at least partially under seawater during the Cretaceous. On land Sequoia grew. Later in the Cenozoic the local seas dried up and were replaced by subtropical swamps. Climate gradually cooled until the Ice Age, when glaciers entered the area and mammoths and mastodons roamed the local woodlands.
  Local Native Americans interpreted fossils as the remains of the water monster Unktehi or burrowing serpents killed by the thunderbirds. The first scientifically documented local fossils were collected during the Lewis and Clark expedition. Shipworm-bored petrified wood is the North Dakota state fossil.
context_section_description: The first scientifically documented fossils in North Dakota were collected during the Lewis and Clark expedition between 1804 and 1806 as they mapped the course of the Missouri River. The first fossil written about in the state were petrified wood preserved in sandstone concretions discovered at the Cannonball River. In 1833 a German named Alexander Philip Maximilian observed leaf impressions preserved in sandstone in the upper Missouri River area. He thought the plants were similar to modern phanerogammic plants still growing in the area. Maximilian collected a large number of them but in 1835 his fossils were destroyed near what is now Bismarck in a fire on the steam ship transporting them. In 1843 John James Audubon collected fossils like petrified wood and marine shells in the area but the specimens were of low quality.
  In the mid 19th century the US government began intense surveying the upper Missouri region. In the course of these surveys a geologist with the Northern Pacific Railroad Survey named John Evans described the region between the Sioux River and the Falls of the Missouri as one of the best places in the world for collecting Cretaceous and Tertiary fossils.
  Evans sent vertebrate fossils to Joseph Leidy, who discussed the remains in a pioneering and historically significant series of publications. Among the most prominent figures in early North Dakota paleontology were Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden and Dr. Fielding Bradford Meek. New York geologist W. James Hall became interested in North Dakota paleontology as a result of Evans and Leidy's research. Hall sent Hayden and Meek into the area. The expedition was a great success, with Hayden and Meek "collected an enormous quantity of fossils." Hall and Meek formally described their non-mammalian discoveries, while Leidy described their mammals.
  In 1883 Edward Drinker Cope made his first forays into North Dakota. Among his early accomplishments included the description of two new kinds of fish from the White River Formation. The site of Cope's discovery attracted so much attention that all of its fossils had been collected and the site was "completely mined out." In 1905 Earl Douglass wrote extensively on behalf of the Carnegie the fossils of the region near Cope's work. In the summer of 1963, Charles I. Frye discovered a specimen of Triceratops in the Hell Creek Formation of Slope County near the town of Marmarth. It was regarded as the best Triceratops skeleton ever found at the time. The excavation of the specimen was funded by many organizations at both the national and state levels. Among the excavators were Dr. Holland, Jack W. Crawford, and Michael F. Archbold from the Department of Geology at the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks. Marshall Lambert of Ekalaka, Montana was another participant. Between 1963 and 1966 several significant Pleistocene mammal skulls were discovered in North Dakota and were described for the scientific literature.
caption: Triceratops.
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