Pteranodon
While the first "Pteranodon" wing bones were collected by Marsh and Cope in the early 1870s, the first "Pteranodon" skull was found on May 2, 1876, along the Smoky Hill River in Wallace County (now Logan County), Kansas, USA, by Samuel Wendell Williston, a fossil collector working for Marsh. A second, smaller skull soon was discovered as well. These skulls showed that the North American pterosaurs were different from any European species, in that they lacked teeth and had bony crests on their skulls. Marsh recognized this major difference, describing the specimens as "distinguished from all previously known genera of the order Pterosauria by the entire absence of teeth." Marsh recognized that this characteristic warranted a new genus, and he coined the name "Pteranodon" ("wing without tooth") in 1876. Marsh reclassified all the previously named North American species from "Pterodactylus" to "Pteranodon". He considered the smaller skull to belong to "Pteranodon occidentalis", based on its size. Marsh classified the larger skull, YPM 1117, in the new species "Pteranodon longiceps", which he thought to be a medium-sized species in between the small "P. occidentalis" and the large "P. ingens". Marsh also named several additional species: Pteranodon comptus and "Pteranodon nanus" were named for fragmentary skeletons of small individuals, while "Pteranodon gracilis" was based on a wing bone that he mistook for a pelvic bone. He soon realized his mistake, and re-classified that specimen again into a separate genus, which he named "Nyctosaurus". "P, nanus" was also later recognized as a "Nyctosaurus" specimen.
Paleontology in Utah
One of the earliest expeditions into Utah occurred during the summer and fall of 1870, when an expedition led by O. C. Marsh collected fossils in on behalf of Yale University. Later, in 1908, paleontologist Earl Douglass was excavating fossils on behalf of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Director Holland of the museum visited Douglass's camp that year. In September, Holland suggested that Douglass search for Jurassic dinosaur fossils in the Uinta Mountains north of his camp. Previous surveyors and paleontologists had noted dinosaur fossils of that age there and Holland suspected that they were promising hunting grounds. Douglass agreed and they set off to the Uinta Mountains the next day. Together they found a "Diplodocus" femur southeast of Split Mountain near the Green River. Encouraged by the discovery of the femur, Douglass returned to the Uinta Mountains the next year. Douglass had little luck during the spring and early part of the summer, but on August 17 he found a series of eight fossil "Apatosaurus" tail vertebrae, still articulated. On receiving word of the discovery, Holland returned to the site.