Paleontology in South Dakota

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state of South Dakota

Paleontology in South Dakota refers to

state fossil
.

Eras

See also: List of the prehistoric life of South Dakota

Paleozoic

No

Canon City, Colorado.[1]
: 258 

Later, during the Carboniferous period, sea levels again began to rise and fall. Marine life from this time included brachiopods and corals, but the rock record preserves evidence for local brackish and freshwater environments as well. The sea withdrew from the state altogether during the Permian and local sediments began being eroded rather than deposited.[2]

Mesozoic

See also: List of the Mesozoic life of South Dakota

During the Triassic period, sedimentation resumed. The geologic record reveals that South Dakota was a moist coastal plain at that time. Seawater once more covered South Dakota during the Jurassic period. This sea was home to creatures like ammonites, clams, crinoids, and starfish. As the sea retreated, South Dakota became a terrestrial environment dotted with lakes, streams, and swamps. The state was covered again by the sea during the Cretaceous period.[2] This sea, the Western Interior Seaway,[3]: 5  was home to many invertebrates, aquatic birds, and marine reptiles.[2] The Cretaceous life of South Dakota was similar to that found in what is now Wisconsin.[1]: 256 

A Late Cretaceous ammonite found in the Fox Hills Formation

Some of South Dakota's

ammonites were very unusual for the group.[1]
: 256 

During the

plesiosaurs like Dolichorhynchops also lived in the Western Interior Seaway of South Dakota during the Campanian. They were fast swimmers who fed on contemporary small fish and cephalopods. Most short-necked plesiosaurs were relatively small, with body lengths of less than ten feet. However, one South Dakotan individual was 6–7 meters (20–23 ft) long.[4]
: 129 

More shark species are known from the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway deposits of South Dakota than other states, with rocks from the same environment like those of Kansas.[5]: 66  Otherwise, these two states had similar shark communities.[5]: 69 

During the Late

ostrich dinosaur Ornithomimus, Pachycephalosaurus, Triceratops, and Tyrannosaurus.[7]

Cenozoic

See also: List of the Cenozoic life of South Dakota

During the early part of the Cenozoic, central and eastern South Dakota was still covered by the sea. The uplift responsible for the Black Hills continued to elevate their topography.[2] As the Cenozoic continued, the sea shrank away from the state. In its place, grasslands formed and were roamed by herds of grazing mammals.[2]

Archaeotherium skull from the White River Badlands on display at the Badlands Dinosaur Museum in North Dakota

Later, during the

titanotheres.[1]: 255–256  Contemporary birds also left behind bones and even an egg. These are significant because bird fossils are very rare.[1]
: 256 

Many streams carried even more sediment into the region from the young

Volcanic activity sporadically showered the state with ash.[2]

During the Ice Age, glaciers scoured the state. As they melted, they deposited sediments that would preserve the fossil remains of creatures like bison, horses, mammoths, and mastodons.[2]

Historiography

Indigenous interpretations

Fossils feature in some of the legends of local people. The

petrified by lightning sent by the thunderbirds. The physical bodies of the Thunder Beings killed by the lightning, including Unhcegila, also ended up being buried. The Sioux believe that earth has a history of four distinct ages. These events occurred during the Age of Rock. This portrayal of the thunderbirds may have been influenced by associations of fossils of the Cretaceous pterosaur Pteranodon with marine reptiles of the same age in the western United States.[9]
: 221 

Baculites fossils.

Local people also employed fossils in ritual.

archeological sites. Archaeological evidence exists for the buffalo-calling stone tradition that is at least 1,000 years old.[10]
: 227 

One interesting South Dakota fossil was found not far from the

Navajo peoples of the southwest, which may explain how the fossil ended up so far from its place of origin.[11]
: 165–166 

Scientific research

On September 10, 1804, four members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition recorded in their journals a fossil discovery along the banks of the Missouri River in what is now Gregory County in south-central South Dakota. The find was a 45-foot-long (14 m) articulated vertebral column, ribs, and teeth at the top of a high ridge. The men interpreted the remains as originating from a giant fish, but today scientists think the specimen was probably a mosasaur or plesiosaur. The expedition sent back some of the fossils, but these were later lost.[12]: 15 

In 1847,

South Dakota School of Mines published its "Bulletin No. 13". This publication summarized the results of all of the paleontological fieldwork done in the White River Badlands.[1]: 255  In 1877, the United States Geological Survey published a report on the ancient plants and invertebrates of South Dakota.[1]
: 255–256 

Yale Peabody Museum, Yale University

In 1895,

Archelon ischyros, which had been preserved in the Pierre Shale. The discovery was the likely instigator for Wieland's subsequent research into Late Cretaceous sea turtles that began the next year.[6]
: 109 

In 1940, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology collaborated with

fossil egg, which author Marian Murray has called "[t]he best find" of the entire expedition. Only a few plant specimens were discovered, but these included fossil hackberry seeds and petrified wood. Some of the fossils were so precariously located that the excavators had to use block and tackle to lower the fossils down from the tops of "slender pinnacles". The fossils were preserved in channel sandstones that had received little scientific attention prior to the expedition.[1]
: 256 

In June 1947, South Dakota School of Mines sent another expedition into the Badlands. They uncovered a wide variety of fossils preserved in the Oligocene White River Formation. Among the creatures discovered were rhinoceroses, saber-toothed cats, giant pig-like animals, Protoceros, tapirs, horses and more.[1]: 256 

"Sue" on display at the Chicago Field Museum

In 1990, Sue Hendrickson discovered

Chicago Field Museum for $8.36 million.[15]

In 1996, Bell and others reported the discovery of a mosasaur of the genus

marine reptiles.[4]
: 139 

Protected areas

Mammoth bones at the Hot Springs Mammoth Site

Paleontology museums

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Murray (1974), "South Dakota".
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i McCarville, Bishop, Springer, and Scotchmoor (2005) "Paleontology and geology".
  3. ^ Everhart (2005); "One Day in the Life of a Mosasaur".
  4. ^ a b c Everhart (2005); "Where the Elasmosaurs Roamed".
  5. ^ a b Everhart (2005); "Other Times, Other Sharks".
  6. ^ a b c Everhart (2005); "Turtles: Leatherback Giants".
  7. ^ Weishampel, et al. (2004); "3.15 South Dakota, United States", pages 585-586.
  8. ^ Lockley and Hunt (1999); "The Puzzle of Miocene Tracks in the Oligocene".
  9. ^ Mayor (2005); "The High Plains: Thunder Birds, Water Monsters, and Buffalo-Calling Stones".
  10. ^ Mayor (2005); "Buffalo-Calling Stones".
  11. ^ Mayor (2005); "Archaeological Evidence of Ancient Fossil Collecting".
  12. ^ Everhart (2005); "Our Discovery of the Western Interior Sea".
  13. ^ SUE at the Field Museum "SUE's Discovery".
  14. ^ SUE at the Field Museum "The Dispute Over SUE".
  15. ^ SUE at the Field Museum "The Purchase of SUE".

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paleontology in South Dakota.
  • Everhart, M. J. 2005. Oceans of Kansas - A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea. Indiana University Press, 320 pp.
  • Lockley, Martin and Hunt, Adrian. Dinosaur Tracks of Western North America. Columbia University Press. 1999.
  • Mayor, Adrienne. Fossil Legends of the First Americans. Princeton University Press. 2005.
    ISBN 0-691-11345-9
    .
  • McCarville, Kata, Gale Bishop, Dale Springer, and Judy Scotchmoor. July 1, 2005. "South Dakota, US." The Paleontology Portal. Accessed September 21, 2012.
  • Murray, Marian (1974). Hunting for Fossils: A Guide to Finding and Collecting Fossils in All 50 States. Collier Books. p. 348.
    ISBN 9780020935506
    .
  • "SUE's Journey: From Field to Field Museum." Sue at the Field Museum. Accessed 11/06/12.
  • Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. 861 pp. 
    ISBN 0-520-24209-2
    .

External links
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