Meet The Founders of Our Museum!

Fossils are found all over the world, typically in sedimentary rocks and sediment-rich environments where ancient life was buried and preserved. Fossils are frequently discovered in geographic areas like deserts, river valleys, mountains, badlands, hillsides, and places of high erosion where ancient rock layers are exposed. Human-made exposures such as quarries, road cuttings, and mines can also be productive fossil sites. Outcrops, where wind and water erosion have revealed old rock, are good spots for fossil hunting. Sedimentary rocks like sandstone, mudstone, limestone, and ironstone are the main places fossils are preserved, largely due to burial under water or sediment millions of years ago. Occasionally, fossils are found in fine-grained, low-grade metamorphic rocks. Major fossil concentrations have been found in the badlands of China, Argentina, and North America. Famous US fossil sites include the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada, and the La Brea Tar Pits in California. China’s Liaoning Province is renowned for numerous feathered dinosaur fossils. Fossils have been found on every continent, including Antarctica. Most dinosaur species have been named from countries with varied geology such as the US, Canada, China, Argentina, and Mongolia. Many other countries and sites also produce a wide diversity of fossils, ranging from ancient bacteria to prehistoric mammals and dinosaurs. Fossils are most likely to be found where sedimentary rocks of the right age are exposed, and regions with active erosion or accessible rock layers are particularly promising for discoveries. - Perplexity

There are many types of dinosaur fossils, classified mainly by their group and function. Dinosaur fossils can include bones, teeth, eggs, and footprints, and are divided into body fossils (parts of the organism) and trace fossils (such as footprints or nests). Dinosaurs are traditionally classified into two main orders: Saurischia and Ornithischia. Saurischia includes theropods, which were mostly carnivorous dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor, and sauropodomorphs, which were large, long-necked herbivores like Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus. Ornithischia includes many plant-eating dinosaurs such as Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Ankylosaurus. Theropods are best known for fossilized bones, teeth, and sometimes feather impressions. Sauropodomorphs are often found as massive skeletons and large footprints. Ornithischians may be identified from bones, armor plates, horns, and frills. In summary, the main types of dinosaur fossils are bones, teeth, eggs, footprints, skin impressions, and sometimes feathers, classified across groups like theropods, sauropodomorphs, and ornithischians. Each group is often distinguished by unique features like horns, armor, claws, or body shape. - Perplexity

The same type of fossils are found all over the world because ancient organisms often lived on supercontinents where landmasses were joined together, allowing species to spread widely before continental drift separated them. This is shown by identical fossil species discovered across Australia, South Africa, South America, India, and Antarctica. As continents drifted apart, these species became isolated, but the fossils remained distributed globally because they originated before the split. Fossil evidence thus supports the theory of plate tectonics and continental movement. Global patterns also emerge when similar environments on different continents support similar life forms, whose remains became fossilized in sedimentary rocks. Additionally, major extinction and diversification events affected global ecosystems, leaving records of identical or closely related organisms on multiple continents. Scientists often use fossils to reconstruct geographic and evolutionary history by comparing matching finds around the world. - Perplexity