Paleontology in Thailand

The first scientifically described fossil from Thailand was that of the bivalve Posidonomya becheri siamensis from Ban Khuan Dinso in Phatthalung Province, made by F. R. Cowper Reed in 1920.

Systematic surveys and studies were later begun by Japanese researchers led by Teiichi Kobayashi, who published their findings on trilobites in Tarutao Island (the oldest fossils found in the country) in 1957.

[1] Dinosaur fossils were first discovered in the country in 1973, during uranium surveys in Phu Wiang (now in Wiang Kao District) in Khon Kaen Province, initiating a wave of dinosaur research by Thai and French academics and a rise in public interest in the field.

Between 1975 and 1980, the Department of Mineral Resources conducted a detailed drilling program and in 1976 Sudham Yaemniyom, a geologist, discovered a piece of bone on a streambed, Huai Pratu Tima, which was later identified as a distal part of the left femur of a sauropod dinosaur,[4] regarded as the first dinosaur discovery of Thailand.

Since 1976, the Department of Mineral Resources, together with the Thai-French Paleontological Project, investigated the dinosaurs in the Phu Wiang mountains.