Portal:Paleontology/On this day/September 10

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 South Dakota, USA. They had discovered a 45-foot long articulated vertebral column with some ribs and teeth associated that was located 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 maybe a plesiosaur. The expedition sent back some of the fossils, but these were later lost.
• 1897 - Egidio Feruglio was born in Tavagnacco, Italy.
• 1941 - Stephen Jay Gould was born in New York City, New York, USA.
• 1950 - Annie Montague Alexander died of a stroke in Oakland, California, USA at age 82.