SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Greene County Geologist Matt Forir said there could be more dinosaur species found in the Show-Me state.
“But to the north, Bollinger County, up in this area here, that’s where the Missouri Dinosaur Site is,” Forir said. “That’s where a number of other cretaceous outcrops are, mainly in the form of clay.”
Forir started digging up dinosaurs when he was in his late teens.
“I remember all my fossils,” Forir said. “They’re like my children.”
Forir is also the director of the Missouri Institute of Natural science, which houses dinosaur fossils, and other cretaceous creatures.
“You have states like South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming that have a lot of dinosaur aged rock so there are hundreds of species of dinosaur,” Forir said.
Forir has brought some fossils back from Wyoming, which are now on display. But, he said you won’t find that kind of dinosaur in Missouri.
“There’s about four different found so far. You’ve got some partial skeletons of the Hypsibema Missouriensis,” Forir siad. “Now the new Parasaur, we’ve also found few teeth from therapod dinosaurs or meat eaters.”
Most dinosaur fossils can be found north of the bootheel.
“It’s a small site,” Forir said. “There are a number of small sites just dotted north of the bootheel with terrestrial cretaceous. There’s big sequences of marine cretaceous in the bootheel where the Gulf of Mexico went up to Popular Bluff and almost to Cape Girardeau.”
Forir said the dig site is roughly ten acres. Although not massive, he believes there could be more out there.
“I’m certain they’ll find other things,” Forir said. “What those things might be, who knows. Maybe they won’t, who knows, that’s the randomness of digging dinosaurs.”