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GSA Meeting, Behind the scenes CMU trip and a Fossil Fern Trip near Pittsburgh, PA

The GSA Conference with the FOSSIL Project

On March 19 - 21st, the FOSSIL Project hosted a small group of avocational and professional paleontologists at the Northeastern and North-Central GSA Joint Section Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. Several of these FOSSIL Project attendees are also members of the Special Friends of the Aurora Fossil Museum.

The FOSSIL Project held a session called Fossil Collaborations: Enhancing Paleontology through Professional and Amateur Partnerships. A total of 16 Presentations filled both morning and afternoon sessions at the professional conference. It was amazing to see the synergy between avocational and professional paleontologists. The talks from both paleontologists and amateurs centered on the importance of amateur paleontology contributions. In addition, the FOSSIL Project had numerous paleontology posters at the poster session. The speakers and titles of the presentations are shown below:

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Brenda Hunda: THE CINCINNATI SCHOOL OF PALEONTOLOGY: HOW AMATEUR PALEONTOLOGISTS CONTINUE THE TRADITION OF THE GENTLEMAN NATURALIST

Jack Kallmeyer: THE IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT IN AVOCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS - CASE HISTORY, THE DRY DREDGERS OF CINCINNATI, OHIO

James Thomka: THE CRITICAL ROLES OF AVOCATIONAL PALEONTOLOGISTS IN ACTIVE QUARRY SETTINGS: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE NAPOLEON QUARRY OF SOUTHEASTERN INDIANA

Kyle Hartshorn: DIGITAL DRY DREDGING: REASSESSING EOBALANUS, RUEDEMANN'S "ANCESTRAL ACORN BARNACLE"

Jason Schein: THE DELAWARE VALLEY PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY: A HISTORY OF ADVANCING PALEONTOLOGY FOR EVERYONE

Wayne Callahan: THE MONMOUTH AMATEUR PALEONTOLOGISTS' SOCIETY: 46 YEARS OF COLLABORATION BETWEEN AVOCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL PALEONTOLOGISTS

John Handley: DADA SCIENCE IN THE SERVICE OF PALEONTOLOGY

Linda McCall: PRPA REPERCUSSIONS & IMPLICATIONS FOR REAL WORLD STUDY BY CITIZEN SCIENTISTS AVOCATIONAL PALEONTOLOGISTS

John Westgaard: DIRT PILE DREAMS - ACT III: FINALE OR PROLOGUE?

Derek Anderson: CITIZEN SCIENTISTS AND LATE PLEISTOCENE RESEARCH IN THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

Victor Perez: THE BELGRADE PALEOBLITZ: A PULOT PROJECT TO ENGAGE AMATEUR PALEONTOLOGISTS

Lee Cone: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY: AN EXPLORATION BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL, AMATEUR, AND COMMERCIAL PALEONTOLOGISTS

Chuck Ferrara: THE VALUE OF AMATEUR PALEONTOLOGY: A CASE STUDY FROM THE SOUTHWEST FLORIDA FOSSIL SOCIETY

Jayson Kowinsky: DIGGING INTO THE DATA: EXAMINING RESOURCE USE ON AN AMATEUR PALEONTOLOGY WEBSITE

Lisa Lundgren: DESCRIBING SOCIAL PALEONTOLOGY FROM AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Bruce MacFadden: SUSTAINING THE MYFOSSIL COMMUNITY, SOCIAL PALEONTOLOGY, AND RELATED ACTIVITIES

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During the meeting weekend, Bill Shankle (DVPS) and I (FOSSILGUY.COM) led the FOSSIL Project crew on a field trip. It started with a behind the scenes tour of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Here we saw one of the prep labs and two storage rooms, named the "Big Bone Room" and the "Little Bone Room." The Big Bone Room contained a few famous holotype specimens, including the holotype of Tyrannosaurus rex. We were even allowed to handle a fossil from this amazing holotype.

After the tour, the group browsed the museum for a bit and then headed to a road cut near Pittsburgh to collect carboniferous age tree ferns. A few nice fern plates were found, and everyone at least found smaller fern and calamites fragments.

I would like to thank everyone at the FOSSIL Project for providing us with this wonderful opportunity to demonstrate the importance of avocational paleontology at a professional conference. If you don't know about the FOSSIL projects collaboration between avocational and professional paleontologists, I recommend checking out the Fossil Project website.

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Carnegie Museum of Natural History Tour - Images

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Ambridge Fossil Fern Field Trip - Images

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