The April 2008 field trip brought beautiful weather and a nice relaxing weekend. Claire, Martha and Leisa were able to get to the site on Friday and enjoyed an evening gazing up at the stars and listening to the night birds.
Our June speaker will be Jon Gilliam of the University of Alabama, who will be presenting his research on Cretaceous predacious shell borings found in Sumter County, Alabama.
BPS regular monthly meetings are held on the 1st Monday of each month at the McWane Science Center. Park in the deck on "Level C", go through doors marked Special Event Center, and follow signs to meeting. The business meeting begins at 7:00, followed by the program around 7:45 or 8pm.
George Phillips, paleontology curator at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science will be speaking to us about Cretaceous paleo research. Here is some advance information:
Title: Upper Cretaceous Echinoderms of the Mid-South
A rare 5.2 magnitude earthquake hit southern Illinois early on Friday, April 18, 2008. It was felt as far south as Memphis, TN, and as far east as Ashville, NC. Because the ground isn't as fractured as in California, they tend to be felt in a much wider area. Since the quake was deep and not close to the surface, property damage was minimal.
Read original story from ABC News . . . (broken link http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Weather/story?id=4682373&page=1)
A recent article in Gallivant magazine highlights a museum in East Tennessee where a road building project uncovered a huge repository of fossils, including camels, elephants, rhinos, and tapirs. The fossils date from the Miocene, about seven million years ago. The site covers about five acres, where visitors can take a guided tour to watch as the excavation progresses, and learn about the fossils from the exhibits housed in a 33,000 square foot museum.
The 112 acre Huntsville Botanical Garden will feature full sized dinosaur models through July 15, 2008. They will be displayed in life like settings using plants similar to those of ancient times. Included will be a 30 foot Edmontosaurus, a 30 foot Parasaurolophus, a 20 foot Allosaurus and many others.
--from Gallivant, Spring 2008
Original article below. Click to enlarge.
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!
