Fossils
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William Clark notices an exposed fossil rib in an area later known as the
Hell Creek Formation on the south bank of the
Yellowstone River
The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains an ...
. Although he mistakenly believed the rib belonged to a huge fish, paleontologists have determined that this event marks the first documented dinosaur fossil discovery in North America.
References
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1800s in paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...