Bluff Country Fossils

Fossil Hunting in Southeast Minnesota

Do an online search for “Ordovician Pictures” for a wealth of pictures and information about this unique era in Earth’s history!

Crinoids did not go extinct, they are with us today! Go to YouTube and type in “crinoids” and watch these animals, that look like plants, walk, dance and float in the sea!

Forestville State Park Office, next to Mystery Cave, has a wonderful fossil exhibit! A “must see” for the budding paleontologist! The Park occasionally has Fossil Interpretive Programs

during the summer.

Painting Credit: National Museum of Natural History, Paleontological Exhibition, Ordovician, Washington D.C., USA; Artist: Fritz Geller-Grimm, 2004. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

500 mya Minnesota was located on the equator and under a shallow salt water sea, perhaps 150’ in depth and filled with marine life! This is an artist’s rendition of what we believe life may have looked like at that time, from the fossil record.