Timeline of paleontology in Michigan

This timeline of paleontology in Michigan is a chronologically ordered list events in the history of paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Michigan.

19th century

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Platygonus compressus skeleton.

1830s

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1839

1870s

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1877

20th century

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1900s

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1903

  • Wagner reported Tuttle's peccaries to the scientific literature.[2]

1910s

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Walrus penis bones from Alaska.

1914

1920s

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1923

  • O. P. Hay reported the presence of two identifiable species and one indeterminate form of mammoth whose fossils had been found in Michigan.[4]

1925

  • Hinsdale reported Smith's walrus penis bone to the scientific literature.[3]
 
Modern bowhead whales.

1927

  • Excavations for a new schoolhouse in Oscoda turned up a Late Pleistocene fossil rib that may have belonged to a bowhead whale of the genus Balaena. The specimen is now catalogued as UMMP 11008.[5]

1930s

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1930

  • Hussey publish the first scientific paper on the Michiganian whale fossils curated by the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology.[6]

1940s

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1940

  • MacAlpin calculated that a total of 117 American mastodon specimens had been discovered in Michigan.[1]

1949

1950s

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1953

  • Handley tentatively referred the rib discovered in Oscoda during the 1927 schoolhouse excavation to the genus Balaena.[5] He also reported the discovery of an Arkonan-aged rorqual rib of the genus Balaenoptera. The fossil had been discovered upright in the sand during the excavation of a cellar in Genesee County.[8] Handley also reported the discovery of another walrus fossil, a skull catalogued as UMMP 32453 found in a Makinac Island gravel deposit.[3] Handley also reported the discovery of sperm whale ribs and a vertebra from Lenawee County.[9]

1960s

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Restoration of a Columbian or "Jefferson" mammoth

1961

  • August: Larry Kickels collected the third right upper molar of a Jefferson mammoth from a gravel layer 100 feet below the surface of Berrien County, near the town of Watervliet.[4]

1962

  • September 18 Larry Kramer discovered a lower mastodon molar now catalogued as GRPM 12540 in Paris Township along Buck Creek.[1]
  • Skeels reported that since MacAlpin's 1940 review of Michigan mastodon discoveries 49 new finds had been made.[1] He also performed the first census of local mammoth remains, noting that 32 Jefferson mammoths had been discovered in Michigan.[4]
  • Hatt also formally described a partial mastodon skull now catalogued as CIPS 827 which had been discovered in Pontiac.[1]
  • Fossils of a Jefferson mammoth were discovered in Gratiot County.[4]

1963

  • Oltz and Kapp reported the 1962 Gratiot County mammoth discovery to the scientific literature.[4]
  • Hatt reported the discovery of a mammoth molar in Oakland County to the scientific literature.[4]

1964

  • May: Fred Berndt discovered lower jaw fragments and the second right molar of a lower mastodon jaw, in Lincoln Township.[10] The remains are now catalogued as UMMP 49425.[11]

1965

21st century

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2000s

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2002

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Wilson (1967); "Mammut americanum (Kerr). American Mastodon", p. 213.
  2. ^ a b Wilson (1967); "Platygonus compressus (Le Conte). Peccary", p. 215.
  3. ^ a b c Wilson (1967); "Odobenus sp.", p. 212.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Wilson (1967); "Mammuthus jeffersoni (Osborn). Jefferson Mammoth", p. 214.
  5. ^ a b Wilson (1967); "? Balaena sp.", p. 213.
  6. ^ Wilson (1967); "Whales", p. 212.
  7. ^ Wilson (1967); "Cervus canadensis Erxleben. Elk", p. 215.
  8. ^ Wilson (1967); "Balaenoptera sp. Rorquals", p. 213.
  9. ^ Wilson (1967); "Physeter sp. Sperm Whale", p. 212.
  10. ^ Holman, J. Alan; Fisher, Daniel C.; Kapp, Ronald O. (September 22, 2003). "Recent discoveries of fossil vertebrates in the lower Peninsula of Michigan". Michigan Academician. XVIII (3): 431–63. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
  11. ^ Wilson (1967); "Mammut americanum (Kerr). American Mastodon", p. 214.

Works cited

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  • Wilson, R. L. (1967). "The Pleistocene Vertebrates of Michigan". Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science Arts and Letters. 52: 197–257.