John Bell Hatcher
Overview
 
John Bell Hatcher was an American paleontologist and fossil hunter best known for discovering Torosaurus
Torosaurus
Torosaurus is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous period , between 70 and 65 million years ago. It possessed one of the largest skulls of any known land animal. The frilled skull reached in length...

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Born in Cooperstown
Cooperstown, Illinois
Cooperstown is an unincorporated community in Brown County, Illinois, United States. Cooperstown is east of Mount Sterling and southeast of Ripley....

, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, his farmer father moved the family when Hatcher was young to Cooper, Iowa
Cooper, Iowa
Cooper is an unincorporated community in Greene County, Iowa, United States.-History :Cooper was founded in 1881 with the arrival of the railroad, and was named after Des Moines railroad executive F.M. Hubbell's father-in-law, Isaac Cooper...

, where he received his early education. He first took an interest in paleontology while working as a coal miner to earn money for college. He matriculated at Grinnell College
Grinnell College
Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its strong tradition of social activism. It was founded in 1846, when a group of pioneer New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College....

 in the autumn of 1880, then after one term transferred to Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

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