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Humans' fascination with dinosaurs dates back centuries. Before the scientific designation of a group of animals called dinosaurs came sometime in the 1840s, some people believed the dinosaur fossils they found were anything from massive dragon bones to the bones of a human giant. Since then, every American state has searched their soil for dinosaur fossils —And some have come up with more than others.
Stacker compiled a list of the states with the most dinosaur fossil finds. They consulted the Paleobiology Database, a non-profit public resource that brings together fossil records from research institutions around the world, to make their ranking. Missouri came in at no. 40 with four total fossils recorded. All of the fossils were from the Campanian time period, and three of them were from the Hadrosauridae genus. Here's what they had to say about Missouri's dinosaur fossil finds:
The duck-billed dinosaur discovered in 1942 near Glen Allen, Missouri, became the state symbol. The state is also home to a plethora of fossils from the American Mastodon, which earned a namesake state park in Eastern Missouri. Visitors can also check out famous dinosaur bones, a piece of meteorite, mammoth tusks, and other fossils at the Ed Clark Museum of Missouri Geology in Rolla.
While Kentucky, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin all have no recorded dinosaur fossils, California comes in at no. 1 with 1,988 fossils.