DINOSAURIAN FAUNA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

During the spring of 2009, internship research at the Geological Survey of Alabama was conducted to assess what Cretaceous dinosaur material has been collected and described within the southeastern United States. Methods of research included literature review, personal communication with paleontologists, and the review of museum collection databases. Results showed dinosaur material has been collected from the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Dinosaur material includes representatives from the families of Tyrannosauridae (Appalachiosaurus), Hadrosauridae (Lophorhothon and Hypsibema), Dromaeosauridae, Ornithomimidae, Nodosauridae, and the suborder of Sauropodamorpha with many additional unidentifiable fragments. Information gathered for this project was compiled into a comprehensive database that includes taxonomy, bone identification when possible, museum at which the specimen is now retained, museum catalog number, collector, date of collection, collection locality, and geologic formation. Photographs of each specimen were also collected. All of the identifiable dinosaur material previously collected range from the Santonian to the Maastrichtian stages of the Cretaceous period based on stratigraphic units from which the material was collected. The quality and quantity of fossil material being found warrants further scientific investigations of the Mesozoic era depostis found throughout the Southeast.