During the Silurian Period, 430 million years ago, equatorial reef systems developed in the seas. The reefs were home to all kinds of invertebrates and among the most plentiful were brachiopods, bryozoans, and gastropods, seen in this specimen in our collection.

While hunting for fossils, the unexpected is sometimes discovered. These finds can range from pottery shards to this fulgurite, or "fossil lightning," formed when lightning strikes the ground.

7,000 year old bison teeth found at the Cherney Bison Site. For a donation of $200 or more you can get your very own bison tooth as a thanks for helping fund the excavation of this incredibly unique fossil site in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.

This Dimetrodon footprint was found in a fossilized swamp in New Mexico and dates from the late Carboniferous to early Permian Period, and is 300 million years old. Dimetrodons lived during the Permian period and went extinct 40 million years before dinosaurs evolved.

Acrocanthosaurus was the top predator of the early Cretaceous. This theropod dinosaur weighed 15,000 pounds, measured 38 feet tall, had a 51 inch long skull, and a running speed of 20 mph. Prickly spines ran along the top of its back forming a ridge that gave an armored appearance.

Pegmatite is a type of igneus rock that frequently contains large crystals of quartz, feldspar, or mica. When looked at with a longwave UV flashlight, these minerals seem to glow! Kids at our museum can see this for themselves up close and personal.

450 million years ago the majority of life in the oceans had soft bodies that did not fossilize very well. Their fossilized remains often appear as blurry stains upon a rock, but now and then a specimen is found with a well preserved body part, like this strange marrelomorph.

This fossil is an example of what is called a "mortality plate" as it contains the remains of several animals that all died around the same time. Trilobites were some of the first animals to evolve an exoskeleton, and as a result fossilize very well compared to other Cambrian creatures.

Flowering plants make their first appearance during the Cretaceous Period, as did many familiar trees and shrubs, including poplar, magnolia, oak, and maple, and with them a number of successful pollinating insects like this Nematocera specimen trapped in amber in our collection.

Lythronax translates to "gore king" and was a tyrannosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in Utah.

During the Silurian Period, 430 million years ago, equatorial reef systems developed in the seas. The reefs were home to all kinds of invertebrates and among the most plentiful were brachiopods, bryozoans, and gastropods, seen in this specimen in our collection.

Adult Mammoths had one natural enemy–Neanderthals. This Neanderthal scraper in our collection was used for preparing large mammoth hides. The Mousterian style of manufacture reveals it to be 120,000-200,000 years old.

This fossil is of a lobed-finned fish named Osteolepsis macrolepidotus and was found in Scotland. The Devonian Period (named after fossils first found in Devon, England), is known as "The age of fishes" and was fish transformed into three major groups: lobe-finned, ray-finned, and sharks.

Searching for fossils in the Badlands is an unforgettable adventure. There is not a house, telephone pole, or any sign of modern civilization, conditions are hot, and without amenities. Most of the fossils from this region are from the Eocene, like this hoplophoneus (a saber cat) skull fragment.

A slab of rock containing multiple fish, found in the Green River Formation in Utah/Wyoming.

This fossil is a woolly rhinoceros humerus that was found in a cave. It was gnawed on and cracked by a mother cave hyena (an extinct subspecies of modern spotted hyenas), who bit the end of the bone off so that her pups could feed on the marrow within, as evidenced by scrape marks inside the bone.

Zircon crystals are nearly indestructible, and are some of the only things to survive the hellish pressure and heat of the Haldean Eon, when the earth was formed. The oldest zircons are found in Jack Hills, Australia, where our specimen was found. It may be small, but it's 4.4 billion years old!

Stromatolites are fossil evidence of some of the earliest forms of life on earth, and some can be up to 3.45 billion years old! Stromatolites are formed when blankets of photosynthetic single-celled micro-organisms "cement" surrounding sediment in slowly growing layers.

A dagger fly trapped in Baltic amber. We hope to raise money for a museum microscope so kids can examine insect specimens like this one!

A flower beetle in baltic amber. We hope to raise money for a museum microscope so kids can examine insect specimens like this one!

Titanus giganteus is the world's largest beetle! They can grow up to 7 inches long and are native to tropical forests in South America.

Oreodonts are extinct mammals that looked similar to pigs and sheep, but were more closely related to camels. They are the most commonly found fossil in the White River Badlands in South Dakota, and this exceptional specimen from our collection shows an oreodont curled up inside its burrow.

Footprint fossils are important because they reveal the size of the animals that made them, their movement, and animal behavior. The 44,000 pounds of footprints collected at this site in Wyoming tell the story of tyrannosaurs ambushing a herd of hadrosaurs as they approached the river to drink.

Millions of years ago during the Silurian period, the Sahara Desert was a shallow sea full of aquatic animals like crinoids. Don’t be fooled! Crinoids are commonly called "sea lilies" but they aren't plants! They are echinoderms, like starfish and sea urchins, and many species are still alive today!

Ammonites were abundant in the seas during the Jurassic Period. Ammonites are shelled cephalopods, a class of marine animals that include octopuses, squid, cuttlefishes and nautiluses. Ammonites have retractable tentacles for catching small prey, although some species filter-fed for small plankton.

During the Eocene Epoch, 25 million years ago, parts of North America as far north as Oregon were covered with a sub-tropical forest that was nearly identical to the one found in Central America today. These large Brontotherium teeth only hint at the majestic size of a well preserved, adult skull.

One of the trilobites from our "time vault" where kids can handle real fossils from all time periods!

Abundant Eocene fossils of plants and animals are found in the Green River Formation of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. This fossil Pseudosalix Hanleyi, with stems, leaves and flowers preserved, is harder to find than a T-rex tooth!

7,000 year old bison teeth found at the Cherney Bison Site. For a donation of $300 or more you can get your very own bison tooth as a thanks for helping fund the excavation of this incredibly unique fossil site in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.

While hunting for fossils, the unexpected is sometimes discovered. These finds can range from pottery shards to this fulgurite, or "fossil lightning," formed when lightning strikes the ground.