Late Cambrian Brachiopod Talk on 09-30-2011

Cambrian Brachiopod Obolella crassa

Dr. Rebecca Freeman, lecturer at the Earth & Environmental Sciences Department of the University of Kentucky, will present "Brachiopod Extinction and Predation During the Late Cambrian" on September 30, 2011.  This talk will be given at the meeting of the Kentucky Paleontological Society (KPS) of Lexington, Kentucky. Learn more about Dr. Freeman at the U of K web site.

From the KPS "Paleozine" newsletter (Sept. 2011, Vol. 19, No. 9):

"Dr. Freeman’s research uses systematic taxonomy and
biostratigraphy to address the broader issue of understanding
how brachiopods responded to a series of extinction
events that repeatedly affected Laurentian trilobites
during the Late Cambrian–earliest Ordovician. She is also
interested in how linguliform brachiopod diversity was
affected by these extinction events, and whether these
events played a role in the transition from the Cambrian
Fauna, with a dominance of linguliform brachiopods, to
the Paleozoic Fauna, with a dominance of rhynchonelliform
brachiopods."

 

 

The meeting will start at 7:30 PM in the Mines and Minerals Resources Building, Room 101, Rose Street, University of Kentucky campus in Lexington.  Free parking at the structure on Hilltop Avenue. Visit the KPS web site for more information: www.kyps.org

Cambrian Brachiopod Obolella gemma

The brachiopod illustrations were obtained from Second contribution to the studies on the Cambrian faunas of North America by Charles Doolittle Walcott (1886),  Plate X figures 1 and 2.  Images were enhanced and resized before posting.  Book is available at Google Books for free and it is the scan of the copy at the Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College which once belonged to Dr. Alex Agassiz given to him by Charles Walcott on December 13, 1886.  See image of personal inscription:

"A Decade of Dinosaurs" Talk

Dr. Glenn Storrs, Assistant Vice-President of Collections and Research at the Cincinnati Museum Center, will be speaking about the ten years of research at the Mother's Day excavation site in Montana.  He will also cover recent discoveries at the location. Learn more about Dr. Storrs at cincyevolution.com

The talk is entitled "A Decade of Dinosaurs" and will occur Friday, September 23, 2011 at 8 PM EST on the University of Cincinnati campus in room 201 of Braunstein Hall (Old Physics Building).  This presentation is part of the larger Dry Dredgers meeting which is an association of amateur geologists and fossil collectors.

I am a member and it is a very friendly group.  I find the meetings educational and being held in a classroom the seating and displays are great for presentations.

Learn more at their web site: www.drydredgers.org

2011 Falls Fossil Festival

The Falls of the Ohio State Park will be holding their 17th Falls Fossil Festival highlighting the Middle Devonian coral beds exposed by the Ohio River across from Louisville, Kentucky.  I will be there helping identify fossils and minerals in the collecting piles.  Later, I will help out at the KYANA Geological Society table with the fossil and mineral cartons.

If the spillway gates are closed which exposes the fossil beds, guided tours occur.  Different groups will be on hand to talk about geology and paleontology. The speaking schedule is as follows:

September 17, 2011 (all times EST)

1:30 PM Climate Through Time at the Falls by David Polly
Indiana University, Department of Geological Sciences, Bloomington

2:30 PM Drifting Continents by Dan Phelps
Kentucky Paleontogical Society, Lexington, Kentucky

3:30 PM Stories of the New Madrid Earthquakes 200 Years Age by Dr. Steve Greb
Kentucky Geological Survey, Lexington

4:30 PM Keynote Presentation: The Birth of the Ohio River by Dr. Drew Andrews
Kentucky Geological Survey, Lexington

September 18, 2011 (all times EST)

2:30 PM Fossil Collecting Tips by Rick Schrantz
Kentucky Paleontological Society, Lexington, Kentucky

3:30 PM Mineral Collecting Tips by Steve Garza
Corydon, Indiana

Learn more at the Falls of the Ohio State Park web site: CLICK HERE