George Reber Wieland

George Reber Wieland was an American paleontologist renowned for discovering Archelon ischyros, the largest known Cretaceous-era sea turtle, while a student at Yale University.[1] He shifted focus to paleobotany after finding exceptional fossil cycads in South Dakota's Black Hills in 1898, authoring American Fossil Cycads and lobbying to protect the site as a national monument via homesteading in 1920.[1][4] In the 1930s, he led excavations at the site with CCC workers, though later embroiled in disputes over fossil management.[3][4]