Wayside: Titanothere

All living organisms are faced with three options: adapt, move, or die. Titanotheres died.

NPS Photo / Serena Rosales

Quick Facts

Location:

Interior, SD

Significance:

Fossils such as the Titanothere share a story about the limited options life has in the face of a change climate.

Amenities

2 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Tactile Exhibit

Titanic Discovery 

The discovery of this specimen led to the golden age of paleontology in North America. After acquiring this fossil from fur traders, Dr. Hiram Prout wrote about it in 1846. His description captured the attention of scientists. At that time, vertebrate paleontology, the study of ancient creatures with a backbone, was a young science. Many began to do further fieldwork on fossils from the western United States. 

Titanotheres ate leafy plants and thrived in the warm, subtropical climate. Their family lineage became extinct as climate and habitats changed. Rock layers younger than the Chadron Formation show no evidence of titanothere fossils in the park.