As a general rule, you cannot find dinosaur fossils in Minnesota. Most of Minnesota was under water during the time of the dinosaurs, and dinosaurs only lived on land, so dinosaurs didn't live here. Marine reptiles have been found from the dinosaur age, but their remains are rare because most of the rocks exposed in our state are either too old or too young to have dinosaur-age fossils in them. Although dinosaur fossils are found in many countries, the best places in North America to find them are in states such as Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Colorado, and the Dakotas.

Most Minnesota fossils are marine organisms from the Ordovician Period (about 450 million years old). These animals include snails, bryozoans, brachiopods, cephalopods, trilobites, and other invertebrates. They are commonly found around the Twin Cities just about anywhere there are large pieces of limestone or shale exposed (for instance, along the river bluffs). There are some samples of these sorts of fossil-rich rocks in the Mississippi River Gallery, the Dinosaurs and Fossils Gallery, and the Big Back Yard. Other possible Minnesota finds are of "Ice Age" animals. Wooly mammoth teeth, bison remains, and giant beavers (see one in the Mississippi River Gallery) are all examples of younger fossils found in our state.

Here are some resources about places in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota to look for fossils, rules to follow, and how to identify your finds.

• MN Department of Natural Resources "Digging into MN Minerals"
• Minnesota Geological Survey
• Education materials from the MGS: scroll down to download a PDF of "Fossil Collecting in the Twin Cities Area"
• Lots of people look for fossils at the Lilydale Park brickyards. You need a permit to dig at Lilydale, but it's close (just across the river) and you have a good chance of finding some neat stuff.

We live in Rochester, MN and we recently discovered that most of our landscape rock in our backyard is loaded with brachiopods and triolbites. So far we have only found 1 whole trilobite..but many trilobite pieces. It has been fun for the whole family. Do you know of any non profit oranizations that would like any of these?

Since these types of fossils are rather common, it's hard to say if any orgs would want them. One option to consider is trading them in to the Collector's Corner here at the Science Museum!