3rd Grade Fossil Hunting - 2008

As part of the Rocks and Minerals Unit in science, third grade students learn about the differences between rocks and minerals. To enrich this unit, we travel to Lilydale Regional Park in Saint Paul each year for a fossil hunting expedition! Lilydale Regional Park is a St. Paul Park that once was a brickyard. As a result, there is a lot of exposed rock, many of which contain fossils.

Before it became Lilydale Regional Park, the land on which it sits was a bustling brick yard – but that’s just recent history. Four-hundred-fifty million years ago the area was at the bottom of a salty sea. "It was a shallow sea, at least at one time, that's where the sandstone comes from. And then it became deeper. And that's where you get your shale," St. Paul Parks and Recreation staffer Ed Olsen said.

Today, with the waters gone and the rocks exposed, amateur archeologists like those from Glacier Hills Elementary – School of Arts and Science, are finding plant and animal fossils from that ancient ocean. Students routinely find crinoids, brachiopods and bryozoans. Cephalopods, trilobites and gastropods are also in the area.

More information about Fossils in Minnesota
Minnesota PaleoWeb: Resources