Science Museum of Minnesota Hoping to Have Giant Beaver Named State Fossil

Minnesota is one of only four states in the country to not have a state fossil, but the Science Museum of Minnesota hopes to change that.

Before the Bemidji State University men’s hockey game versus Ferris State on Friday, Feb. 16, members of the science museum set up a display with all sorts of fossils that came from Minnesota, with most being between 10,000 and 20,000 years old. The main attraction at the Beavers game was what they say should be the state fossil – the giant beaver.

“It’s an animal very much of the water and would have been living in these lakes or forming as the glaciers were kind of going away up north through Minnesota,” said Alex Hastings, Science Museum of MN Fitzpatrick Chair of Paleontology. “We have one giant beaver that was dated at just over 10,300 years, which puts it kind of just as the ice ages are ending. It’s also about the same time that the first people were settling into Minnesota, so some of the very earliest ancestors here on the land would have actually been interacting with giant beavers, which is really, really cool.”

The Science Museum of Minnesota says that if you want the giant beaver as the state fossil, all you have to do is call your local legislators.