PALEONTOLOGY

Rocks of the Carlile, Niobrara, and Pierre Formations are exposed in road cuts and along rivers in the Rendezvous Region.  These rocks were deposited in subtropical to warm temperate seas, the Western Interior Seaway, which covered North Dakota during Late Cretaceous time from about 90 million to 80 million years ago.  Fossils of animals and plants that inhabited those seas are entombed in these rocks.  Remains of marine reptiles (mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and turtles), fish (including sharks), birds, and invertebrates (including clams, cephalopods, snails, corals, and crabs) have been recovered from the rocks.

 

Exhibits of fossils of the prehistoric life that inhabited the Rendezvous Region can be seen at the Pembina State Museum, Pembina; Icelandic State Park, Cavalier; Cavalier County Museum, Dresden; and the Mordern Museum, Morden, Manitoba.