They were discovered by Fielding Bradford Meek and H.M. Bannister while they were looking for fossil shells in the Lance Formation (then Laramie Formation) near the Black Butte and Bitter Creek.
Lance Creek is the namesake of the Lance Formation, a rock formation from the Late Cretaceous that has yielded fossils from a diverse number of species.
Lance Armstrong | Lance Henriksen | formation | Lance Burton | Command (military formation) | Holy Lance | Elliot Formation | War of the Lance | Leonard Lance | Lance Formation | Lance Barnard | Crato Formation | Chinle Formation | Two Medicine Formation | Tamayama Formation | Missing Man Formation (band) | Missing Man Formation | Marcellus Formation | Lance Parkin | Lance Mountain | Lance Latham | Lance Hooper | Lance Chomyc | Kirkwood Formation | Gettysburg Formation | Clarens Formation | Whitby Mudstone Formation | Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation | Santana Formation | Phalanx formation |
Small hesperornithine bones are known from the freshwater deposits of the Late Cretaceous of the Judith River Group as well as the Hell Creek and Lance Formations as well as Eurasian sites.