Champsosaurus is a strange reptile that lived in Cretaceous and Paleocene environments throughout the western US and in Europe. If there is one thing that the Science Museum’s paleontology research program under the 42-year direction of Bruce Erickson in known for (at least in professional circles), it is his work on champsosaurs. Bruce is one of the only people in the world who spent a career getting to know these strange animals inside and out. His work on the group led to one of the best collections of champsosaur material in the world, right here at the SMM.

The first time that I met Bruce, at an annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, I had just moved to Minnesota and was hoping that he might be interested in letting me work on the dinosaurs in the SMM collection. For good luck, before I introduced myself to him, my husband gave me a pin in the shape of a Champsosaurus skull. I think it did the trick – just a few weeks after meeting Bruce (and sticking the pin on my bag), I began to work at the SMM. We still laugh about that (we think we might be the only two people on the planet with Champsosaurus skull pins!)
– Kristi Curry Rogers, Curator of Paleontology