Philip Reese Bjork is an American geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

 and paleontologist

Paleontology

Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...

 known for his work in unearthing dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 species in America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Career

Bjork received his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

. Bjork's Master's thesis was on the vertebrate fossils of the Slim Buttes

Slim Buttes National Forest

Slim Buttes National Forest was established by the General Land Office as Slim Buttes Forest Reserve in South Dakota on March 5, 1904 with . After the transfer of federal forests to the U.S. Forest Service in 1905, it became a National Forest on March 4, 1907. On July 1, 1908 it was absorbed by...

.
He was a professor at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology is a public institution of higher learning in Rapid City, South Dakota governed by the South Dakota Board of Regents. Founded in 1885 as the Dakota School of Mines, Tech offers degree programs in engineering and science fields. 2,354 students were...

 in Rapid City, South Dakota

Rapid City, South Dakota

Rapid City is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota, and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek on which the city is established, it is set against the eastern slope of the Black Hills mountain range. The population was 67,956 as of the 2010 Census. Rapid...

, as well as serving as director of their Museum of Geology from 1975 to 2000. His academic focus was on Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 dinosaurs and mammals from the Cretaceous and early Cenozoic

Cenozoic

The Cenozoic era is the current and most recent of the three Phanerozoic geological eras and covers the period from 65.5 mya to the present. The era began in the wake of the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous that saw the demise of the last non-avian dinosaurs and...

.

Highlights

1975

Bjork described a fossil of Proscalops tertius, an extinct insectivora

Insectivora

The order Insectivora is a now-abandoned biological grouping within the class of mammals...

n, that he had found in Oligocene

Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...

 deposits in the Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park, in southwest South Dakota, United States preserves of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States....

.

1985

He announced the find of remains of at least ten duck-billed dinosaurs in western South Dakota

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

.

1989

Bjork reported the discovery of Dakotadon

Dakotadon

Dakotadon is a genus of iguanodont dinosaur from the Barremian-age Lower Cretaceous Lakota Formation of South Dakota, USA, known from a partial skull. It was first described in 1989 as Iguanodon lakotaensis, by David B. Weishampel and Philip R. Bjork. Its assignment has been controversial. Some...

, originally believed to be the first remains of Iguanodon

Iguanodon

Iguanodon is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived roughly halfway between the first of the swift bipedal hypsilophodontids and the ornithopods' culmination in the duck-billed dinosaurs...

found in North America, in the Lakota Formation

Lakota Formation

The Lakota Formation is a sequence of rocks from the Barremian epoch from Western North America. Located in South Dakota, the name is derived from the Lakota Native American tribe....

 of South Dakota; the remains included the skull, partial mandible

Mandible

The mandible pronunciation or inferior maxillary bone forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place...

, and incomplete caudal and dorsal

Dorsum (biology)

In anatomy, the dorsum is the upper side of animals that typically run, fly, or swim in a horizontal position, and the back side of animals that walk upright. In vertebrates the dorsum contains the backbone. The term dorsal refers to anatomical structures that are either situated toward or grow...

vertebrae.