Bruce Erickson

This week saw the end of an era in Minnesota paleontology with the passing of Bruce Erickson. Bruce had been the curator of paleontology at the Science Museum of Minnesota from 1959 to 2017, where he was most famous for his work on the Paleocene fossils of Wannagan Creek. Much of his research was on crocodilians (several examples of which were featured in this post), but he also worked on many other topics, including the dinosaurs of the Poison Creek Quarry (Morrison Formation), champsosaurs, and turtles. Examples of many of these fossils can be seen in the paleontology exhibit area of the Science Museum, which includes a Wannagan Creek section (one of the few large Paleocene exhibits you'll find in a museum), several Morrison dinosaurs, and an enormous Triceratops (a composite of two partial skeletons he collected early in his tenure). If you'd like to know more, many of his publications and other paleontological publications from Science Museum collaborators can be downloaded here.