Philip R. Bjork

Philip Reese Bjork is an American geologist and paleontologist known for his work in unearthing dinosaur species in America.

Career

Bjork received his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan.^[1] Bjork's Master's thesis was on the vertebrate fossils of the Slim Buttes.^[2] He was a professor at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology^[1] in Rapid City, South Dakota, as well as serving as director of their Museum of Geology^[3] from 1975 to 2000.^[2] His academic focus was on Cretaceous dinosaurs and mammals from the Cretaceous and early Cenozoic.

Highlights

1975

Bjork described a fossil of Proscalops tertius, an extinct insectivoran, that he had found in Oligocene deposits in the Badlands National Park.^[4]

1985

He announced the find of remains of at least ten duck-billed dinosaurs in western South Dakota.^[5]

1989

Bjork reported the discovery of Dakotadon, originally believed to be the first remains of Iguanodon found in North America, in the Lakota Formation of South Dakota;^[6] the remains included the skull, partial mandible, and incomplete caudal and dorsal vertebrae.^[7][8]

Selected publications

• Bjork, Philip R. (January 1967). "Latest Eocene Vertebrates from Northwestern South Dakota". Journal of Paleontology (SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology) 41 (1): 227–236. ISSN 0022-3360. JSTOR 1301919.
• Bjork, Philip R. (1970). "The Carnivora of the Hagerman Local Fauna (Late Pliocene) of Southwestern Idaho". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (American Philosophical Society) 60 (7): 3–54. doi:10.2307/1006119. JSTOR 1006119.

References

1. SDSM&T 1998-99 Undergraduate and Graduate Catalog (PDF). South Dakota: South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. 1998. p. 316. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
2. Macdonald, J. R.; Minkler, Heidi; Martin, James. "Museum of Geology History". South Dakota Museum of Geology. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
3. Bowman, John Stewart (1986). The World Almanac of the American West. New York, NY: Ballantine Books. p. 355. ISBN 0-345-33720-4.
4. Bjork, Philip R. (September 1975). "Observations on Proscalops tertius (Mammalia: Insectivora) of the Upper Oligocene of South Dakota". Journal of Paleontology (SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology) 49: 808–813. ISSN 0022-3360. JSTOR 1303274.
5. "Dinosaur Remains Found in S. Dakota". San Jose Mercury News. August 30, 1985. pp. 13A. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
6. Weishampel, David B.; Bjork, Philip R. (March 30, 1989). "The First Indisputable Remains of Iguanodon (Ornithischia: Ornithopoda) from North America: Iguanodon lakotaensis, sp. nov.". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (Society of Vertebrate Paleontology) 9 (1): 56–66. doi:10.1080/02724634.1989.10011738. ISSN 0272-4634. JSTOR 4523237.
7. Weishampel, David B.; Osmólska, Halszka; Dodson, Peter (2004). The Dinosauria. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 416. ISBN 978-0-520-24209-8. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
8. Tanke, Darren H.; Carpenter, Kenneth; Skrepnick, Michael William (2001). Mesozoic Vertebrate Life. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-253-33907-2. Retrieved 2009-11-24.