The World's Best-Preserved Fossils Are Right Outside Chicago: But There Are No Dinosaur Bones at Mazon Creek

The world's best-preserved fossils are right outside Chicago: But there are no dinosaur bones at Mazon Creek

Sixty-five miles southwest of Chicago, a small hill that looks like a prop from an Indiana Jones movie breaks up the flat, monotone landscape. Consisting of shale, sandstone and rocks from an old coal mine, the waste pile—located on a massive river delta from another era—is an unremarkable remnant from the region's once-thriving coal industry.

The world’s best-preserved fossils can be found right outside Chicago. But there are no dinosaur bones at Mazon Creek.

Sixty-five miles southwest of Chicago, a small hill that looks like a prop from an Indiana Jones movie breaks up the flat, monotone landscape. Consisting of shale, sandstone and rocks from an old coal mine, the waste pile — located on a massive river delta from another era — is an unremarkable remnant from the region’s once-thriving coal industry. Except it contains many of the world’s best-preserved, most diverse fossils. The defunct mine’s loc…