This timeline of paleontology in Michigan is a chronologically ordered list events in the history of
paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the
U.S. state of
Michigan.
Ezra Smith made another interesting Pleistocene-aged discovery, finding the fossil
penis bone of a
Late Pleistocenewalrus seven miles northwest of
Gaylord. The specimen was referred to the genus Odobenus and is now catalogued as UMMAA 490.[3]
Excavations for a new schoolhouse in
Oscoda turned up a Late Pleistocene fossil rib that may have belonged to a
bowhead whale of the genus Balaena. The specimen is now catalogued as UMMP 11008.[5]
Handley tentatively referred the rib discovered in Oscoda during the 1927 schoolhouse excavation to the genus Balaena.[5] He also reported the discovery of an
Arkonan-aged
rorqual rib of the genus Balaenoptera. The fossil had been discovered upright in the sand during the excavation of a cellar in
Genesee County.[8] Handley also reported the discovery of another walrus fossil, a skull catalogued as UMMP 32453 found in a
Makinac Island gravel deposit.[3] Handley also reported the discovery of
sperm whale ribs and a vertebra from Lenawee County.[9]
August: Larry Kickels collected the third right upper molar of a
Jefferson mammoth from a gravel layer 100 feet below the surface of Berrien County, near the town of
Watervliet.[4]
September 18 Larry Kramer discovered a lower mastodon molar now catalogued as GRPM 12540 in
Paris Township along Buck Creek.[1]
Skeels reported that since MacAlpin's 1940 review of Michigan mastodon discoveries 49 new finds had been made.[1] He also performed the first census of local mammoth remains, noting that 32 Jefferson mammoths had been discovered in Michigan.[4]
Hatt also formally described a partial mastodon skull now catalogued as CIPS 827 which had been discovered in Pontiac.[1]
Fossils of a Jefferson mammoth were discovered in Gratiot County.[4]
May: Fred Berndt discovered lower jaw fragments and the second right molar of a lower mastodon jaw, in
Lincoln Township.[10] The remains are now catalogued as UMMP 49425.[11]