Vertebrate Paleontology of the Green River Basin, Wyoming, 1840-1910

Paleontological exploration in the Green River Basin in the first half of the nineteenth century demonstrated the presence of vertebrate fossils there. Studies of potential wagon and railroad routes revealed additional information about the occurrence and distribution of fossiliferous rocks during the 1850s. Post Civil War government geologic and geographic surveys yielded large numbers of fossil mammals and created the setting for competition and controversy among Leidy, Cope and Marsh. Numerous publications resulted, as well as Leidy's departure from paleontology. Residents of Fort Bridger worked with all the Eastern scientists to provide information about fossil localities; many specimens also were sent east. Four Princeton expeditions in the 1870s and 1880s preceded the systematic work of the American Museum of Natural History in 1893 and 1903-1906. By 1909 the geological and vertebrate paleontologic framework of the basin was firmly established.