Paleontology in Missouri facts for kids
Paleontology in Missouri is all about finding and studying fossils in the U.S. state of Missouri. Missouri's rocks tell a story that covers almost all of Earth's history, from billions of years ago to today. The only big time periods missing from its rock record are the Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic. You'll find brachiopods (ancient shelled creatures) are some of the most common fossils here.
Long, long ago, during the early Paleozoic Era, a warm, shallow sea covered Missouri. This sea was home to amazing creatures like Archimedes (a spiral-shaped sea animal), brachiopods, shelled cephalopods (like squids but with shells), conodonts (tiny tooth-like fossils), corals, crinoids (sea lilies), armored fishes, and trilobites (ancient sea bugs). Later, during the Carboniferous Period, lush forests grew on land. Early four-legged animals, called tetrapods, left their footprints in the mud, which later turned into fossils. By the end of this period, the sea had left Missouri.
The Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic periods don't have many rock layers in Missouri. However, during the Cretaceous Period, southeastern Missouri was again covered by seawater, and dinosaurs roamed the land. Missouri stayed partly underwater into the early Cenozoic Era, while many different kinds of trees grew on land.
During the Ice Age, huge glaciers covered the northern part of the state. The southern half was home to large animals like camels, mammoths, and mastodons. Missouri is especially famous for its mastodon fossils from this time.
Missouri even has its own official state fossils! The Pennsylvanian sea lily, Delocrinus missouriensis, is the state fossil. And Hypsibema missouriensis is the official state dinosaur.
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Missouri's Ancient Past
Missouri's oldest fossils date back to the Precambrian Eon, billions of years ago. These include stromatolites, which are layered structures made by ancient bacteria, like Ozarkcollenia laminata.
Life in Ancient Seas
Cambrian Period: Early Sea Life
During the Cambrian Period, Missouri was covered by a shallow sea. This sea was home to algae, which left behind tiny spores. You could also find linguloid brachiopods, which are shelled creatures. Trilobites, ancient sea arthropods, were also present but less common.
Ordovician Period: Diverse Ocean Creatures
During the Ordovician Period, Missouri's seas were full of life. You could find many branching bryozoans (tiny colonial animals), different kinds of corals, lots of crinoids (sea lilies), and graptolites (small colonial animals). There were also many pelecypods (clams), nautiloids (shelled relatives of squid), Receptaculites (a type of algae or sponge), and sponges. Trilobites were also present, though less common in the early part of this period. Armored fish were among the first vertebrates in Ordovician Missouri.
Silurian Period: More Ocean Dwellers
Into the Silurian Period, Missouri's seas continued to thrive. There were many lacy bryozoans, conodonts, and various corals. Abundant crinoids and trilobites also lived here. Armored fish remained an important part of Missouri's sea life during this time.
Devonian Period: Fish and First Land Plants
During the Devonian Period, Missouri's seas had a variety of life. You could find a few ammonoids (coiled-shell relatives of squid), conodonts, and different corals. Many crinoids, nautiloids (with straight and coiled shells), and pelecypods were present. Abundant stromatoporoids (another type of colonial animal) and trilobites also lived in these waters. Armored fish continued to swim in Devonian Missouri. On land, spore-producing plants began to grow and left fossils in the northeastern part of the state.
Mississippian Period: Crinoid Gardens
During the Mississippian Period, Missouri's seas were incredibly rich in life. There were many ammonoids, Archimedes screws, and Evactinopora bryozoans. You could also find very abundant blastoids (relatives of crinoids), lacy bryozoans, and various corals. Tiny foraminiferans, nautiloids, pelecypods, and trilobites were common. Many worms left behind trace fossils like their borings and tubes. The Burlington Formation from this period is famous for its many crinoid fossils.
Pennsylvanian Period: Swamps and Footprints
Life in Missouri during the Pennsylvanian Period included many ammonoids, brachiopods, and different kinds of bryozoans. Conodonts, corals, crinoids, and fusulinids (tiny single-celled organisms) were also common. Nautiloids, pelecypods, and trilobites lived in the seas. Armored fish were also present. On land, lush plant life included ferns, reeds, rushes, and scale trees. These plants left behind many fossils, from tiny spores to large logs. Early four-legged animals left their footprints near Kansas City. The sea covering Missouri slowly filled with sand and mud. By the end of the Carboniferous Period, the sea had completely left the state.
Dinosaurs and Flowering Plants
Cretaceous Period: Dinosaurs Roam
Sedimentation started again during the Cretaceous Period. Parts of Missouri were covered by the Western Interior Seaway, which came from the Gulf of Mexico. Southeastern Missouri, with its Cretaceous sediments, became part of the Mississippi Embayment. On land, the first flowering plants began to bloom. The fossil of the duck-billed dinosaur, Parrosaurus, has been found in Bollinger County. These Parrosaurus fossils are some of the only known dinosaur remains in Missouri.
The Age of Mammals and Ice
Early Cenozoic: Forests Flourish
The Mississippi Embayment still covered part of Missouri during the early Cenozoic Era. The plants of this time grew in a moderate climate. During the Eocene epoch, many tree fossils were left behind. Hickory, linden, sycamore, and walnut trees left their remains in southeastern Missouri, especially in Stoddard and Scott County.
Pleistocene Epoch: Ice Age Giants
During the Pleistocene epoch, huge glaciers moved south into Missouri, covering the area north of the Missouri River. At this time, mastodons were very common across Missouri, with their remains found in almost every county. Mammoths were also present, but their fossils are less common. Other Ice Age mammals in Missouri included armadillos, bison, bears, camels, deer, horses, musk oxen, peccaries, porcupines, raccoons, sloths, and tapirs. A sinkhole near Enon in Montieau County even preserved non-mammal fossils like frog and turtle bones.
Exploring Missouri's Fossil Discoveries
Early Fossil Hunters
Finding mammal fossils in Missouri is generally rare, but the state has had some amazing discoveries. In the early 1800s, settlers found large fossil bones near the Big Bone River. In the 1820s, scientists collected vertebrate fossils from a cave under St. Louis. Later, in 1838, Albert Koch from The St. Louis Museum found fossils east of the Osage River. These were later identified as belonging to the giant ground sloth Mylodon. In 1839, Koch found more bones and teeth near the Big Bone River. He put together a fossil skeleton, adding extra bones, and called it the "Missourium". This "creature" became part of a traveling exhibit shown in cities like Dublin, London, and Philadelphia.
Important Finds Over Time
In 1941, workers tunneling in southeastern Moniteau County discovered a deposit of Pleistocene fossils near Enon. These remains included horses, tapirs, a sloth, and two nearly complete turtle shells. In 1945, Dr. M. G. Mehl from the University of Missouri and his students found peccary fossils in the same cave where fossils were discovered in 1820. In 1951, over two hundred bones and teeth were dug up from a swampy area on a farm southwest of Vienna. From 1956 to 1957, many different mammal fossils were found in a crack in the ground in Ralls County, about 4 miles north of Perry. These bones were from bears, deer, mice, and a type of eastern wood rat not found in that area today.
More recently, in 1989, the Pennsylvanian sea lily, Delocrinus missouriensis, was named Missouri's official state fossil. In 2004, Hypsibema missouriensis was named the official state dinosaur. These dinosaur fossils come from clay beds in Bollinger County, a unique geological area. This site, known as the Chronister Vertebrate site, dates back to the Campanian Age of the Late Cretaceous period and holds the only known dinosaur fossils in Missouri.
People Who Studied Missouri's Fossils
- Chester A. Arnold was born in Leeton on June 25, 1901.
- Michael S. Engel was born in Creve Coeur on September 24, 1971.
Places to Learn About Fossils
- Bollinger County Museum of Natural History, Marble Hill (currently closed)
- Kansas City Museum, Kansas City
- Maramec Museum at Maramec Spring Park, St. James
- Missouri Institute of Natural Science, Springfield
- Saint Louis Science Center, St. Louis
- Ste. Genevieve Museum Learning Center, Ste. Genevieve
- Washington University, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Forest Park Rd. and Hoyt Ave.
Fossil Clubs and Groups
- Eastern Missouri Society for Paleontology
See Also
