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FOSSIL FORAGING
TOP TEN SITES Keep your eyes open and your tools sharp, and you might just have the geological treasure hunt of a lifetime in your own backyard—the state of Missouri.
PARK HILLS Brachiopods and trilobites are embedded in limestone and shale. Check road cuts on Route 8 near Leadwood and Frankclay, about five miles west of Park Hills.
NEW LONDON About one mile north of New London along Highway 61, exposed rock can yield trilobite fragments, bryozoans, and brachiopods in limestone formations. Look south of the Salt River bridge.
EUREKA Brachiopods, bryozoans, and trilobites can be found in rock outcrops and road cuts on Interstate 44’s north outer road to the west of Allenton. Also look along Route 109, around three miles north of Eureka.
ARNOLD/FESTUS AREA Highway 61- 67 and Interstate 55 boast road cuts, rock outcrops, and abandoned quarries with cephalopods, brachiopods, bryozoans, trilobites, and corals in limestone.
SPRINGFIELD Seek crinoids, horn coral, and brachiopods in abandoned quarries, road cuts, and outcrops, next to Interstate 44 and Highway 65. Eroded areas provide the best opportunity for finding fossils.
COLUMBIA In this area you should find brachiopods and crinoids. The brachiopods will be in areas of exposed limestone.
Scott Kaden and Joe Gillman, geologists with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’s Division of Geology and Land Survey, scope out an outcrop near Potosi in Washington County. The area is known to be a high-occurence brachiopod zone where trilobites can be found.
SOUTHERN MISSOURI’S CENTRAL OZARK REGION This area has some of the oldest rocks in the state. Steadily eroding for thousands of years, the landscape contains gastropods, cephalopods, and trilobite fragments. The natural weathering reveals new fossils with each expedition.
HANNIBAL AND LOUISIANA, MISSOURI Check quarries and road cuts in the Hannibal area. The best spots are along Route 79 between Hannibal and Louisiana. Possible fossils here include brachiopods, gastropods, crinoids, blastoids, and corals.
KANSAS CITY The metro Kansas City area has marine fossils in quarries, road cuts, and outcrops. Fossils lie in exposed limestone and shale.
VERNON, BATES, HENRY, AND ST. CLAIR COUNTIES These counties have abandoned coal strip mines with marine fossils in limestone and shale.
Sources: Missouri Department of Natural Resources and Rick Poropat. Map at www. dnr.mo.gov/pubs/pub665.pdf
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