We received this link the other day. It’s news for Wilmington, but Wilmington North Carolina not Illinois. Still, it’s an interesting story about dinosaurs and fossil collecting.

A dig in eastern North Carolina last week had a scientist up to his armpits in mud, and led to some great finds for a museum collection, including fossils from the age of dinosaurs. The paleontologist that led the dig is also hoping to someday solve an enduring Onslow County fossil mystery.

Christian Kammerer is the Research Curator of Paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and he spent last week digging around eastern North Carolina to gather prehistoric fossils for the museum’s collection.

He said, “Places like Topsail, Carolina Beach, Emerald Isle all are right above very fossiliferous rock layers, so the tide actually will wash fossils up on the beach.”

Unlike paleontological finds out west, Kammerer wasn’t hiking desserts and dry creek beds for T-rex skeletons and stegosaurus horns. In addition to beachcombing, his team also searched other ENC waterways for remnants of the past.

“The state’s big rivers, like the Tar and the Cape Fear, they cut through rock that is rich in fossils and then redeposits those fossils, like in creek beds and along the banks,” he explained, “So, earlier (last) week we were out along a tributary of the Tar River, collecting fossils from the age of dinosaurs.”