UPDATES TO THE DINOSAUR FAUNA FROM THE LATE CRETACEOUS COLERAINE FORMATION (CENOMANIAN) OF NORTHERN AND CENTRAL MINNESOTA

Dinosaur fossils have remained rare and unreported in Minnesota, with the exception of a single weathered centrum of a Hadrosaur found in Crow Wing County in 1972. Until recently this was the only known dinosaur specimen discovered in the state. Current research by the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Minnesota Discovery Center over the last 15 years has added to the record of dinosaurian fauna of Minnesota. These specimens include a vertebral process of a non-crocodilian archosaur, a Dromaeosaurid ungal and numerous bone fragments. These fossils were found at the Hill-Annex Mine (Calumet, Minnesota) in Cretaceous stockpiles removed by open pit mining operations from 1913-1978.

As further collecting progresses in the stockpiles of the Hill-Annex and adjacent mines along the Mesabi Iron Range it should produce additional specimens. This will add more information to the sparse record of dinosaurs in Minnesota and a better understanding of the paleoenvironment along the Eastern margins of the Cretaceous Inland Sea.