Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When were the first mososaur fossils discovered?
Mosasaur growth is not well understood, as specimens of juveniles are rare, and many were mistaken for hesperornithine birds when discovered 100 years ago. However, the discovery of several specimens of juvenile and neonate-sized mosasaurs unearthed more than a century ago indicate that mosasaurs gave birth to live young, and that they spent their early years of life out in the open ocean, not in sheltered nurseries or areas such as shallow water as previously believed. If, like other marine reptiles (such as plesiosaurs), mosasaurs provided parental care is currently unknown. The discovery of young mosasaurs was published in the journal Palaeontology.[16]
Parahughmilleria (meaning "near "Hughmilleria"") is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of "Parahughmilleria" have been discovered in deposits of the Devonian and Silurian age in the United States, Canada, Russia, Germany, Luxembourg and Great Britain, and have been referred to several different species. The first fossils of "Parahughmilleria", discovered in the Shawangunk Mountains in 1907, were initially assigned to "Eurypterus". It would not be until 54 years later when "Parahughmilleria" would be described.
The Cuche Formation contains unique Placoderm fish fossils, first noted by Mojica and Villarroel in 1984. Across the section, also plant fossils and bivalves are found. In this part of the sequence the first fish fossils were discovered. The top section provided brachiopods (genus "Lingula") and other at that moment undetermined fossil fragments.
The site was discovered by Professor and geographer Antero de Almeida, in 1901, when the first fossil was found at the site and also the first fossil of paleorrota. 
Fossil eggs are very common in the Tiantai basin, and were first discovered there in the 1950s. Due to better infrastructure, in the 2000s numerous new types of fossil eggs have been discovered in Tiantai. "Paraelongatoolithus" was first discovered and named in 2010 by the Chinese paleontologists Wang Qiang, Wang Xiaolin, Zhao Zikui, and Jiang Yan'gen.
It was CPR train track workers in Field who discovered the fossils of the Burgess Shale locality. Commonly called by the workers ‘the stone bugs’, the very first fossils were discovered on Mt. Stephen. In 1909, Charles D. Walcott discovered the Walcott Quarry on the slope of Mt. Field.
Fossilized ink sacs were first discovered in belemnites in 1826 by Mary Anning a famous British fossil collector and paleontologist, who along with her brother Joseph and a friend and fellow fossil collector Elizabeth Philpot succeeded in recovering the ink, used to illustrate ichthyosaur and pterosaur fossils. The ink recovered from such fossils were also used to draw fossil ichthyosaurs by Henry De la Beche, a friend and supporter of Mary Anning.
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.
Later, in 1940, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology collaborated with National Geographic on an expedition into the badlands. They uncovered tons of fossils from at least 175 different species of Oligocene life. The fossils were taken to the South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City. Among the mammal discoveries were the remains of rhinoceroses, tapirs, three-toed horses, pig-like animals, and rodents. The team also uncovered some bird fossils, which are very rare. One of these was a 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. In June 1947 the 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 teeth, giant pig-like animals, "Protoceros", tapirs, horses and more. In 1990, Sue Hendrickson discovered a new specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex that would later be nicknamed in her honor. The specimen made headlines when a dispute over ownership rights raged for more than five years. "Sue" was determined to rightfully belong to the owner of the property it was found on. The rancher put the specimen up for auction and was purchased by the Chicago Field Museum for 8.36 million dollars.
"Aster-" means star while "-lepis" means scales. Confusion surrounded the first fossils discovered of this genus, as naturalists were unable to ascertain their place among fishes and they were first named Chelonichthys. Later very fine specimens were found in the Old Red Sandstone of Russia and Professor Asmus of Dorpat sent them to the British Museum, noticing fossils exhibited star-like markings. That is when the name Chelonichthys was abandoned for "Asterolepis" which Eichwald proposed.
Hitchcock left his mark in paleontology. He discovered some of the first fossil fishes in the United States. He published papers on fossilized tracks in the Connecticut Valley, including Eubrontes and Otozoum, that were later associated with dinosaurs, though he believed, with a certain prescience, that they were made by gigantic ancient birds. In the Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet he established a remarkable collection of fossil footmarks. His son, Edward "Doc" Hitchcock, named one of the earliest dinosaurs discovered in North America and the United States, "Megadactylus polyzelus". Later it was reclassified as the type specimen of "Anchisaurus polyzelus" (ACM 41109), a prosauropod. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation E.Hitchc. when citing a botanical name.
When the first fossils were discovered, they were mistakenly thought to be sponges, hence the generic name. Later, similarly shaped fossils were found, and (correctly) identified as those of a crinoid, and named ""Dinocrinus"." ("Terrible Lily") It was soon realized that "Dinocrinus" and "Calceolispongia" were the same, and "Dinocrinus" is now regarded as a junior synonym.
This timeline of egg fossils research is a chronologically ordered list of important discoveries, controversies of interpretation, taxonomic revisions, and cultural portrayals of egg fossils. Humans have encountered egg fossils for thousands of years. In stone age Mongolia, local peoples fashioned fossil dinosaur eggshell into jewelry. In the Americas, fossil eggs may have inspired Navajo creation myths about the human theft of a primordial water monster's egg. Nevertheless, the scientific study of fossil eggs began much later. As reptiles, dinosaurs were presumed to have laid eggs from the 1820s on, when their first scientifically documented remains were being described in England. In 1859, the first scientifically documented dinosaur "egg" fossils were discovered in southern France by a Catholic priest and amateur naturalist named Father Jean-Jacques Poech, however he thought they were laid by giant birds.
Afontova Gora II is the site where the human fossil remains were found. The site was first excavated in 1912-1914 by V.I. Gromov. In 1924, G.P. Sosnovsky, N.K. Auerbach, and V.I. Gromov discovered the first human fossils at the site. The remains of mammoth, Arctic fox, Arctic hare, reindeer, bison, and horse were discovered at the site.
Fossils from "Eodromaeus" were first discovered in 1996 by Argentinean paleontologist Ricardo N. Martinez and Earthwatch volunteer Jim Murphy, and it was first believed that the fossils were a new species of "Eoraptor". However, as the researchers started to take a closer look at the fossils, they found that it had many skeletal features which were absent in "Eoraptor", and they understood that it came from a new genus.
Early significant discoveries in the state include Cretaceous reptile fossils discovered in the 1850s by state geologist Ebenezar Emmons. During the Civil War, Confederate coal miners uncovered many Triassic fossils. In approximately, 1869, the state's first known dinosaur fossils were discovered.
A major problem in the 19th century was the lack of fossil intermediaries. Neanderthal remains were discovered in a limestone quarry in 1856, three years before the publication of "On the Origin of Species", and Neanderthal fossils had been discovered in Gibraltar even earlier, but it was originally claimed that these were human remains of a creature suffering some kind of illness. Despite the 1891 discovery by Eugène Dubois of what is now called "Homo erectus" at Trinil, Java, it was only in the 1920s when such fossils were discovered in Africa, that intermediate species began to accumulate. In 1925, Raymond Dart described "Australopithecus africanus". The type specimen was the Taung Child, an australopithecine infant which was discovered in a cave. The child's remains were a remarkably well-preserved tiny skull and an endocast of the brain.
Anning searched for fossils in the area's Blue Lias cliffs, particularly during the winter months when landslides exposed new fossils that had to be collected quickly before they were lost to the sea. She nearly died in 1833 during a landslide that killed her dog, Tray. Her discoveries included the first ichthyosaur skeleton correctly identified; the first two more complete plesiosaur skeletons found; the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany; and important fish fossils. Her observations played a key role in the discovery that coprolites, known as bezoar stones at the time, were fossilised faeces. She also discovered that belemnite fossils contained fossilised ink sacs like those of modern cephalopods. When geologist Henry De la Beche painted "Duria Antiquior", the first widely circulated pictorial representation of a scene from prehistoric life derived from fossil reconstructions, he based it largely on fossils Anning had found, and sold prints of it for her benefit.
Ancient people living near Fossil, Oregon collected fossils as far back as 11,000 years ago and kept them at a dwelling that has since been uncovered by archeologists. Some of the fossils kept there were pierced to be made into jewelry. Five slabs of rock bearing leaf impressions were found neatly stacked in the corner of the site. These and other fossils discovered by Native Americans may have contributed to the development of local myths and lore. Historian Adrienne Mayor cites as an example the Klamath Tribes of the Modoc, who attributed local fossils to water monsters killed by the mythological figure Coyote.
Oregon's first paleontologist was Thomas Condon. Condon began collecting in 1861, when a company of soldiers that arrived in Fort Dalles, where Condon served as the Congregational church pastor. The soldiers brought fossil bones and teeth, including a well-preserved rhinoceros jaw, from the John Day fossil beds. When soldiers were dispatched the following year to Harney Valley, near the fossil beds, Condon went along with them and prospected for fossils. He went fossil collecting again in 1863 and discovered rich fossil deposits north of Picture Gorge in the John Day River valley.
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.
In October 2014, the fossil remains of an early hominin were discovered at the site. A mandible and six teeth were discovered. The hominin fossils belonged to at least three distinct individuals. The hominin fossils were dated to around 700,000 BP, making the Mata Menge fossils the oldest hominin fossils yet discovered on the island of Flores. The fossils at Mata Menge are likely to belong to hominins that resulted from the effects of insular dwarfism working on "Homo erectus".
During the upper Triassic period, about 210 million years ago, the region around Frick was a dry lowland with flat hills and small depressions. During the rainy season, the depressions filled with water and dinosaurs congregated around the ponds. When they died, their bodies were covered by the mud in the ponds and fossilized, creating rich fossil beds in Frick. The first Plateosaurus fossils were discovered in 1961 and further excavations during the following decades have discovered numerous fossils. In 2006, the only Coelophysoidea (a small flesh-eating dinosaur species) fossil in Switzerland, was found by an amateur paleontologist in Frick.
Cephalopod egg fossils are the fossilized remains of eggs laid by cephalopods. The fossil record of cephalopod eggs is scant since their soft, gelatinous eggs decompose quickly and have little chance to fossilize. Eggs laid by ammonoids are the best known and only a few putative examples of these have been discovered. The best preserved of these were discovered in the Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay of England. Currently no belemnoid egg fossils have ever been discovered although this may be because scientists have not properly searched for them rather than an actual absence from the fossil record.
Paleontology has a long history in the State of Illinois, stretching at least as far back as the 1850s, when the first Mazon Creek fossils were being found. Early in the ensuing 20th century a Silurian age fossil reef system was discovered in the state. In the 1950s Francis Tully discovered the "monster" that would later be named in his honor. The Pennsylvanian species "Tullimonstrum gregarium" ("Tully Monster") is the Illinois state fossil. It is one of the few officially designated state fossils that is endemic to the state it represents.
Since 1836, at least five discoveries of mammoths have been made in Alaska. One of the earliest occurred in 1897 when mammoth bones were discovered in a volcanic cave on St. Paul Island. This location was regarded as so unusual that some researchers had expressed suspicions that the remains were planted there as a practical joke. In 1850, another major paleontological milestone in the state was reached with what was probably the first publication on the state's Tertiary plants. Alaska's Tertiary plant fossils were first discovered in places such as the Alaska Peninsula, the Cook Inlet's shoreline, and Unga Island. Between 1902 and 1908, hundreds of sources for Cretaceous plant fossils were discovered. Among the finds were algae, "Ampelopsis", conifers, elm, "Ficus", a great diversity of hepaticae, laurel, magnolia, oaks, "Pinus", "Platanus", and sequoias. Invertebrate remains were also found with the plants. In 1903, several sources of Tertiary plant fossils were discovered between Awik and Eagle City. In the 1930s, several lengthy scientific papers shed even more light on Alaska's Cretaceous flora. As such, Alaska's Cretaceous plants did not receive serious treatment in the scientific literature until 50 years after its Tertiary flora. No more mammoth remains were found until 1952 when a partially fossilized mammoth tooth was discovered. The specimen weighed 3 pounds and 11 ounces while measuring in at 9.75 inches long. In the mid-to-late twentieth century, the University of Michigan sent summer expeditions into Alaska to look for Cenozoic vertebrates, but after three failed attempts they called off the effort.