March 29, 2008 - Pennsylvanian Fossils - Walker and Jefferson County, AL
This month BPS spent our field trip exploring road cuts along a new highway, which included 10+ stops to survey various likely looking areas.
This month BPS spent our field trip exploring road cuts along a new highway, which included 10+ stops to survey various likely looking areas.
Tonight's presentation will be "Southeastern Dinosaurs", by James Lamb, Curator of Paleontology at McWane Science Center
in Birmingham, Alabama. For a great dinosaur and fossil day, check out the current McWane exhibit on Alabama Dinosaurs, catch the Dinosaurs Alive IMAX movie, take a supper break, then head on back down to hear the lecture!
A new exhibit "Alabama Dinosaurs" opened on March 14, 2008 at McWane Science Center showcasing fossil skeletons and other remains of dinosaurs found in the Eastern half of the United States, primarily from Alabama. It is the largest showcase of eastern US dinosaurs in the world. Associated with the new exhibit is the IMAX presentation "Dinosaurs Alive".
McWane Science Center Press Releases:
A large crew of BPS members and guests headed to northwest Alabama this month, in hopes of finding crinoid heads and trilobites. Well, we found both!
Randy Mecredy, director of the UA Alabama Museum of Natural History, will give a presentation on the Natural History Museum, its background, collections, and some of the education outreach that it does such as its summer archaeological and paleontological excavations.
NOVA will be presenting a program on the latest chapter in the debate over the origin of flight. "The Four-Winged Dinosaur" will be shown on PBS (Birmingham, AL area) at these times:
Nova: The Four Winged Dinosaur (Alabama Public Television)
Tuesday, February 26, 7:00pm
Wednesday, February 27, 1:00am
Thursday, February 28, 4:00am
Friday, February 29, 12:00am
McWane has posted some "behind the scenes" pictures of the upcoming dinosaur exhibit. Enjoy!
Exhibit in Progress - Pictures (broken link)
The Wetumpka Riverfest will be coming March 8, 2008 to Wetumpka, Alabama. Along with the Crater 5k Run, arts and crafts, food and music, there will be lectures and tours of the Wetumpka meteor crater. Dr. David T. King Jr., an Auburn University professor of geology, will share information about the astrobleme. There is a free lecture March 6 at 7pm at the Wetumpka Civic Center. There is a fee for the March 8 lecture/tour packages. Space on the vans is limited, reservations required by February 29.
Fossil hunters say they have discovered bones of two massive meat-eating dinosaurs in Africa.
ABC News reported that a tiny pterodactyl with curved toes has been found in the Liaoning region of China. It was found by a research group led by Xiaolin Wang of the Chinese Academy of Science.
A beautifully preserved fossil of a tiny pterosaur suggests that the giant pterodactyls that roamed the skies during the late Cretaceous period may have come from much smaller, tree-dwelling ancestors.
The new fossil, which was discovered in 2004 in western Liaoning province, China, is about 120 million years old.