While fishing along the Missouri River, Paul Neumiller, a long-time resident of the Bonesteel area, discovered a very important fossil sea lizard. He recovered the skull and some backbone elements of a new type of marine reptile known as a mosasaur, a creature that superficially resembles an alligator with paddles, but is more closely related to snakes and monitor lizards such as the Komodo Dragon.
The discovery was presented to James Lindley of the United States Corps of Engineers in Chamberlain, who is responsible for such finds along the River. Lindley then contacted Dr. James Martin, executive curator of the Museum of Geology at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, the institution responsible for the conservation of such specimens for the federal government. Martin recognized that the fossil was that of a mosasaur originally known from rocks deposited during the end of the Age of Dinosaurs in Europe, about 70 million years ago. This specimen represents the first confirmed occurrence of the mosasaur, a genus known as Hainosaurus in North America, although the reptile had been suspected to occur in the region.
Martin named a new species, Hainosaurus neumilleri, in honor of the discoverer in a new book, "The Geology and Paleontology of the Late Cretaceous Marine Deposits of the Dakotas."
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