Abstract:
On an arrowhead hunting expedition, Tom Morgan of Hoffman found instead a graveyard of prehistoric dinosaur fossils. After three weeks of excavation near Pekin, in Montgomery County, geologists unearthed a load of 185 million year old bones, including a four-foot two inch jawbone. The bones were identified as those of a phytosaur from the Upper Triassic Age. Geologists Russ Patterson and Bob Gannis contacted the American Museum of Natural History in New York, which sent officials to evaluate the site. Full scale excavations began on June 4, 1969.