Fossils Hunsters Fossil hunters are people who look for plants and animals that lived mainly during the Mesozoic era from 245 million to 65 million years ago Professional fossil hunters are paleontologists Nonprofessionals or amateurs are people who do not have the same training as professionals but do have the same excitement for finding the remains of life from ancient Earth
XTREME FACT Paleontologists sometimes study just one form of ancient life For example scientists who study only flying reptiles are called pterosaurologists Micropaleontologists study fossils so small they must be viewed with a microscope Paleobotanists study fossil plants Geologists study rocks and the fossils in them
History People studied ancient fossils as early as 500 BC In 1822 editor Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blanville came up with the French term paleontologie Over time the scientific field became known as paleontology
Mary Anning One of the most well-known fossil hunters was England’s Mary Anning She earned money by selling her dinosaur discoveries In the early to mid-1800s she found ichthyosaur plesiosaur and pterosaur fossils People were fascinated with ancient life The world of fossil hunting became popular Torosaurus Perforated Lizard The skull was collected by Othniel C Marsh around 1914 XTREME FACT American paleontologists Othniel C Marsh and Edward Cope fiercely competed with each other from 1877 to 1892 Their efforts to find fossils became known as The Bone Wars
