John Bell Hatcher (October 11, 1861 – July 3, 1904) was an American paleontologist and renowned fossil-hunter most famous for discovering Torosaurus in Wyoming. Born in Cooperstown, Illinois, Hatcher matriculated at Grinnell College in Iowa in the autumn of 1880, then transferred to Yale University, where he and his paleontological prowess were discovered by the great paleontologist Othniel Marsh, who invited him to a paleontological dig in Nebraska.
Hatcher discovered two Torosaurus skulls in 1890. The species was subsequently named by Marsh, two years after Triceratops (much to Marsh's glee; his rival, Edward Drinker Cope had discovered Monoclonius).
Unknown to John Bell Hatcher, a disturbance in time allowed a Triceratops to appear in 1890 Wyoming. A group of hunters in Hatcher's employ killed the dinosaur, believing it to be some sort of diseased buffalo. Hatcher never saw the carcass, and so ate the dinosaur without realizing just what it was he was eating.
