Last Monday I was in Jackson visiting with George Phillips, the curator of paleontology at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. While I was there, he showed me the huge mammoth tusk that recently made the news when it was found in Madison County. It was an impressive sight. However, it was the fossil bones of Mississippi dinosaurs that got my attention.

Except for the extreme northeast corner of the state, Mississippi was covered by an inland sea during the Cretaceous Period of 145 to 66 million years ago. That was the height of the reign of the dinosaurs.

When I was growing up and collecting fossils, dinosaur bones were something you just dreamed of finding for they seemed as rare as hen’s teeth. At Plymouth Bluff and in the chalk outcroppings of the prairie I found mostly fossil shells and shark teeth with an occasional mosasaur, turtle or crab. Since then, construction projects and channel work in rivers and creeks have exposed 70- to 90-million-year-old dinosaur remains.

Among the dinosaur fossils found in northeast Mississippi have been bones or teeth from hadrosaurs (duck billed dinosaur) near Tupelo, Baldwyn, and Boonville, a hadrosaur leg bone at Blue Springs, a nodosaur (armored dinosaur) tooth in Town Creek near West Point, a tyrannosaur near Aberdeen, several different large theropod dinosaurs in Luxapalila Creek, a hadrosaur arm bone in north Columbus with shark teeth embedded in it, a hadrosaur at Plymouth Bluff published by the Late Jack Kaye, and a dromaeosaur (raptor) in Luxapalila Creek.

I have been lucky enough to find a few dinosaur fossils. They include two fragments of hadrosaur teeth. One I found near the W.M. Browning Fossil Park 24 miles north of Tupelo. The other I found in the Luxapalila. The most interesting bone I have found appears to be from an ornithomimosaur dinosaur. It also came from the Luxapalila.

In 2016 a new “Geology of Mississippi” was written by David Dockery and David Thompson and published by University Press of Mississippi. It is a fascinating guide to rocks, fossils and volcanos in Mississippi. Yes, there are two hopefully dead volcanoes here, the Jackson Volcano and the Midnight volcano. Both were active during the Cretaceous but are now buried.

The book also discusses the K-Pg Boundary (sometimes called K-T Boundary) in Mississippi. It is visible as a thin dark layer and is evidence of the asteroid or comet impact 66 million years ago that killed the dinosaurs, except ancestors of birds, and 75% of life on earth. That boundary is visible to experts but not usually recognizable to an untrained eye. It is found in several places in Oktibbeha County and in places roughly along Highway 15 to the Tennessee line.

Four pages in the geology book were devoted to the Luxapalila fossil sites in Columbus. It said of the Luxapalila sites: “This locality has produced a greater number of dinosaur remains than any other site in the state. Those remains include ornithopod and two theropod species.”

According to George Phillips the Luxapalila fossil sites near Propst Park have yielded teeth from sharks, sawfish, rays and saber tooth fish. Also found are bones from turtles, mosasaur, crocodiles,and plesiosaur. The dinosaurs that have been found there include ornithomimosaurs, raptors, hadrosaurs, an armored dinosaur, tyrannosaur, and an unidentified large theropod. A favorite find of kids I have taken there to hunt fossils are coprolites which is fossil poop.

Two years ago a new dinosaur found at sites along the Luxapalila near Propst Park made international news. The story appeared in print or online editions of leading national popular science publications. The online edition of Smithsonian Magazine reported, “Giant ostrich-like dinosaurs once roamed North America. Rare finds in Mississippi paint a picture of these creatures’ lost world. … Enormous birdlike dinosaurs strutted across Mississippi around 85 million years ago.”

Discovery Magazine reported, “the analysis of fossils from an ancient formation of rock in northern Mississippi has now revealed two species of these ostrich-like dinosaurs, one of which is among the largest in the world.” Popular Science reported, “Giant ostrich-like dinosaurs give us a glimpse of ancient North America. … A new discovery might be providing serious nightmare fuel for those with ornithophobia.” The news of the discovery of the new dinosaurs in Mississippi was even carried by the BBC.

A week ago the nation’s newspapers and social media carried the story of a 12,000 year old mammoth tusk found in a Madison County creek. Two years ago the BBC and Smithsonian carried the account of dinosaur fossils found in Columbus. Three years ago, the finding of a fossil whale in Alabama made national news. People everywhere and especially children are fascinated by ancient animals and dinosaurs in particular.

Two years ago I wrote about interest in a fossil park in Columbus.

There is such a fossil park just north of Tupelo, the W.M. Browning Fossil Park, which has proven to be popular with people from all over northeast Mississippi and even attracts people from Columbus.

The dinosaur bones being found in Columbus are mostly coming from the banks of the Luxapalila in the Propst Park area. The fossils found at those sites include everything from shark teeth to saber tooth fish teeth to mosasaurus to crocodiles to dinosaurs.

It seems Columbus is missing out on having a fantastic park that could even attract national if not international attention.

Rufus Ward is a local historian.

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].

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