SIOUX CITY, Iowa –Dr. Kurt Spearing, an associate professor in the Natural & Mathematical Sciences Department, presented research on the first report of a Mosasaur from Iowa at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania last month.

Spearing was made aware of the Mosasaur fossil by Tyler McDonald, a resident of Sanborne, Iowa. McDonald discovered the fossil in 2015, and in 2021, he connected with Spearing. The fossil was found in a load of rock that was quarried in Southwestern Osceola County and is a set of three caudal vertebrae from a Plioplatecarpine Mosasaur. 

Despite other fish and marine invertebrate fossils being found in northwest Iowa, this is believed to be the first record of a Mosasaur from the state. 

Spearing presented this discovery and further research at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in October. You can read the abstract here.