Locality · Mixed: private ranches, BLM, state trust land
Lance Creek
Niobrara, Wyoming, United States
Lance Creek in Niobrara County, Wyoming, is the type area of the Lance Formation, where Hatcher collected Triceratops skulls for Marsh in the 1890s and where microvertebrate screening still yields mammal teeth, dinosaur teeth and Myledaphus by the thousand. Commercial material comes from a handful of private ranches. Its fauna is the same as Hell Creek's, so labels should give the formation, not just 'Wyoming Cretaceous'.
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State / province | Wyoming |
| County | Niobrara |
| Land manager / status | Private ranches; BLM; Wyoming Office of State Lands |
| Access | Private by permission; federal vertebrates by permit only |
| Formations | Lance Formation |
| What is found | Triceratops, Edmontosaurus, Nanotyrannus, Thescelosaurus, microvertebrates |
Rules
BLM rules as elsewhere (casual invertebrate and plant collecting only; vertebrates by permit, no sale). Wyoming state trust land requires a state permit for any collecting. Private ranch material is legal to sell with the owner's consent.
Source: https://www.blm.gov/programs/paleontology/paleontology-management (checked 2026-09-16).
Collecting rules
Elsewhere
Cite this article
Stratum Study. "Lance Creek" (Locality). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/localities/lance-creek. Accessed 2026-09-20.
@misc{stratum-lance-creek,
title = {Lance Creek},
author = {{Stratum Study}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/localities/lance-creek}},
year = {2026},
note = {Locality article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, commons. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.