Though paleontology is the study of prehistoric plants and animals dating back millions of years, significant fossil finds are much more recent. Some of the significant fossil discoveries in the Northwest and around the world are listed below. Common fossil finds to U.S. West Coast beaches also are listed.

Ankylosaur

First evidence of ankylosaurs — huge armor-plated, turtle-like-looking beasts that weighed more than 3 tons, were as tall as humans, as long as a motorhome and ate plants — were found the 1920s. Fossils also were found in Alaska’s Talkeetna Mountains in 1990. It lived during the Cretaceous period.

Edmontosaurus

Fossil hunters found dinosaur bones of the “Edmonton lizard,” so-named because it was found in Alberta, Canada, on the North Slope of Alaska in the 1980s. The Edmontosaurus was a duck-billed, plant-eating dinosaur that could reach 30 feet long and weigh up to 4 tons. It lived during the late Cretaceous period.

Liaoceratops

The Liaoceratops was recently discovered in China and is a distant relative to the three-horned dinosaur, Triceratops. Liaoceratops is much smaller, weighing roughly 7 pounds, whereas the Triceratops weighed as much as 7 tons. It lived during the early Cretaceous period.

Incisivosaurus

First found in 2002, in China, the Incisivosaurus gauthieri — the “incisor lizard” — is noted for its strange teeth. It is regarded as an herbivore, but had sharp, odd teeth. It lived during the early Cretaceous period.

Brachylophosaurus

The first of the Brachylo-phosaurus dinosaurs was found in Alberta, Canada, in the 1950s, but a more recent find in Montana in 2000 has created quite a stir among paleontologists. The Montana find was dubbed “Leonardo” and was partially mummified, preserving some soft tissue of the young animal as well as the hard bones. It lived during the late Cretaceous period.

Metasequoia

The Metasequoia, a conifer tree related to current pines, junipers and yews, is Oregon’s state fossil, recognized as such by the Oregon Legislature on May 4, 2005. The Metasequoia fossils in Oregon commonly date from the Miocene Epoch — roughly the same time during which the recent fossilized whale swam in the oceans.

Plesiosaur

Though plesiosaurs lived during the start of the Jurassic Period and through the Cretaceous Period, these marine reptiles weren’t considered dinosaurs. To some, they resemble large alligators with flippers. Amateur paleontologists Mike Kelly and Greg Kovalchuk found one of the fossilized critters in 2005 in Central Oregon — where none had been found before. North America Research Group members helped excavate the fossil. The Plesiosaur ate primarily fish and were about 25 feet long.

Patinopectin/ Vertipectin

These are scallop shells often found in rocks on Oregon beaches. They are related to scallops that currently live in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the varieties of Patinopectin lived during the Miocene and, later, during the Pliocene epochs, after dinosaurs and during the time when mammals roamed on Earth.

Thalattosuchian

NARG’s Andrew Bland found the fossils of one of these crocodile-like creatures in Central Oregon in 2005. Thalattosuchians lived during the Jurassic Period, when dinosaurs ruled. They were about 6 to 8 feet long.