China’s Liaoning quarry is home to the fossils of a dinosaur that is considered part of a series of “dino-birds,” in part because of its clear feathers. Although they are both feathered dinosaurs, the Sinosauropteryx and the Archaeopteryx (found in Germany) are only distantly related. The feathered Sinosauropteryx was found by Chinese farmers, and labeled in 1996.

A chalk quarry in Maastricht, the Netherlands, was the site of the 1764 discovery of a fossil first misidentified as a whale skull — and later classified as a Mosasaurus. The fossil was looted during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1794, and then allegedly returned in a trade for 600 bottles of wine. The fossil was eventually classified as the genus Mosasaurus in 1822.

A gigantic femur was the first part of the Megalosaurus fossil found in 1676, and identified by University of Oxford professor Robert Plot. The professor published an analysis of the fossil in 1677’s “Natural History of Oxfordshire,” which is believed to include the first published illustration of a dinosaur bone.

In 1938, the Coelacanth resurfaced about 66 million years after they were thought to be gone from the planet. Called a “living fossil” by paleontologists, the Coelacanth was identified after being caught at the mouth of the Chalumna River in east South Africa.

Found by Mary Ann Mantell and her husband Gideon Algernon Mantell, the Iguanodon is one of the most influential fossils ever discovered. The paleontologist couple found the fossils in Sussex, England, in 1822, with Mary first finding the herbivore’s teeth by the side of the road. The Iguanodon lived in the Early Cretaceous period, between 110 and 140 million years ago.

Otzi the Iceman is a glacier mummy from the Copper Age, who was accidentally discovered by hikers in 1991. Scientists believe Otzi was killed while crossing a valley near the present-day border of Austria and Italy, roughly 5,300 years ago. Naturally preserved within ice, Otzi is displayed, along with his tools, in Italy’s South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

The Tiktaalik is a fish that went extinct about 375 million years ago, and its fossil was found in the Canadian Arctic in 2004. The species represented a step in the transition from fish to four-limbed animals, with a flattened head, extended neck, and wrist-like forelimbs.

Jack Horner is one of the most influential paleontologists in history, and he even served as an advisor on the “Jurassic Park” film series (in which he also made a cameo). One of Horner’s biggest discoveries was the fossils of the duck-billed Maiasaura in Montana. Horner’s discovery provided some of the clearest evidence that dinosaurs cared for their young.

In the early 1860s, the first fossils of the Archaeopteryx were discovered, and they were notable because the feathered dinosaur is believed to be one of the first species with the ability to fly. The bird-like Archaeopteryx dates to the Late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago.

In 2000, a Brachylophosaurus fossil found in North Dakota nicknamed Leonardo was not the first of its kind to be discovered, but it is one of the most complete dinosaur fossils ever unearthed. The teenage hadrosaur was mummified in a way that even preserved its skin, and it was listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records as the “Best Preserved Dinosaur.”

At the turn of the 20th century, paleontologists found a series of full skeletons of extinct mammals from the Miocene era in the hills of Nebraska. The significance of the fossils found at Nebraska’s Agate Fossil Beds is that these were species that had previously only been found in fragments. These full skeletons allowed scientists to learn more about the Age of Mammals.

The Hagerman Horse fossils found in Idaho’s Thousand Springs State Park demonstrate the evolution of prehistoric horses to the version we see today. This type of fossil has since been found throughout the western United States and Mexico, and dates back to the Middle Pliocene era, about 3.7 million years ago. In addition to modern horses, the Hagerman Horse is related to modern donkeys and zebras.

The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Teller County, Colorado, is home to some of the world’s largest fossilized tree stumps. The stumps come from redwood trees that were preserved by volcanic debris flow. The monument also contains what is believed to be the world’s only fossilized stump trio.

Lucy is a famous homind fossil discovered by paleoanthropologists Donald Johnson and Tom Gray in 1974 at the Hadar fossil site in Ethiopia. The fossil got her name from the music the scientists played while celebrating their discovery, which was the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” The term “hominid” covers species originating after the human and African ape ancestral split, somewhere between 4 and 6 million years ago.

Ghost Ranch is the name of a large New Mexico fossil bed, and the Coelophysis is the most notable type of fossil found there. The small theropod dinosaurs lived approximately 228 to 201 million years ago during the Late Triassic Period. The first Coelophysis was 1889 by Edward Drinker Cope, but their 1947 discovery at Ghost Ranch showed the dinosaurs grouped together, demonstrating that some theropods traveled in large herds.

The fossils of the Burgess Shale, estimated to be over half a billion years old, were found in the Canadian Rockies in 1909 by Charles D. Walcott. Formerly the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Walcott named the discovery after Canada’s Mount Burgess. The Smithsonian displays a permanent exhibition of Burgess Shale fauna at the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils at the National Museum of Natural HIstory.

Part of the Jurassic National Monument in Price, Utah, the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry is home to the densest concentration of Jurassic-aged dinosaur bones ever discovered. Over 12,000 bones have been found across its 850 acres. Paleontologists have also been mystified by the discovery that more than 75% of bones come from carnivores.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex was one of the largest theropod dinosaurs that existed, reaching up to 40 feet in length and 12 feet in height. The first T. rex fossil was discovered in Hell Creek, Montana, by fossil hunter Barnum Brown in 1902. In 1908, Brown discovered an even more complete skeleton of a T. rex at nearby Big Dry Creek, Montana.

In 1858, scientists unearthed the most complete dinosaur skeleton ever found until that point — a fossil of a Hadrosaurus discovered in New Jersey. It also made history when it became the first mounted dinosaur skeleton on public display in 1868. Thanks to a 1991 campaign led by fourth-grade teacher Joyce Berry and her students, the Hadrosaurus was named New Jersey’s official state dinosaur.

Colorado and Utah share the Dinosaur National Monument, which covers over 210,000 acres of mountain, desert, and rivers. Over 1,500 bones can be found in various stages of preservation at the site, which President Woodrow Wilson named a national monument in 1915. Industrialist Andrew Carnegie originally founded the monument’s Carnegie Dinosaur Quarry, which contains fossils from 11 species of dinosaur.