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A beginners guide to finding dinosaur fossils
So you want to find a dinosaur?
Where to go?
Finding fossils
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Where to go?

Fossils live in formations

Dinosaur fossils are impossible to find unless you know where to look. (So, put down the shovel and stop digging up your backyard!)
Dinosaur fossils can be found in portions of the Earth's crust that are as old as the dinosaurs you are looking for. In geology these "portions" are called
formations
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. There are hundreds of different formations within the United States.
The
USGS has an interactive map
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where you can look at the formations by location... maybe you have a formation close by from the era of the dinosaurs!

What type of dinosaurs are you looking for?

Dinosaurs lived on the Earth for 150 million years(!). And, the over 1000 species of dinosaurs did not all live together simultaneously in the same place and time.
Those dioramas you've seen of a Tyrannosaurus rex munching on a Stegosaurus? Impossible. Stegosauruses lived during the Jurassic period (around 150 million years ago), whereas the T-rex lived during the Late Cretaceous (68 Mya).
What kind of dinosaurs are you interested in? This handy picker will help you figure out what period of formation to look for.

Era:
Late Cretaceous
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Cool Dinos
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Wiki
Photo
Era
1
Tyrannosaurus
Late Cretaceous
2
Triceratops
Late Cretaceous
3
Velociraptor
Late Cretaceous
4
Ankylosaurus
Late Cretaceous
No results from filter
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Finding a formation for your era

Now that you know what types of dinosaurs you are interested in and the era they're from, you'll be saddened to know that only a number of formations from that era are actually fossil-producing.
The author has hunted for fossils from the Cretaceous period... some accessible formations from this era are in Eastern Montana, Eastern Wyoming, and Western South Dakota and are listed below.
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Hell Creek Formation
The Hell Creek Formation is an intensively studied division of mostly Upper Cretaceous and some lower Paleocene rocks in North America, named for exposures studied along Hell Creek, near Jordan, Montana. The formation stretches over portions of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. In Montana, the Hell Creek Formation overlies the Fox Hills Formation. The site of Pompeys Pillar National Monument is a small isolated section of the Hell Creek Formation. In 1966, the Hell Creek Fossil Area was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.
en.wikipedia.org
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en.wikipedia.org
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Find some land!

[Cannot hunt on state land]
[No tresspassing on private land]
[Make sure you get permission in writing]


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