Stones And Bones 2024

The students spend two weeks in the classroom at the Museum, and two weeks doing fieldwork in the Green River Formation in Southwestern Wyoming—specifically, the Fossil Butte Member, whose deposits contain a 52-million-year-old community of exquisitely preserved plants and animals “locked in stone.” The class was led this year by Negaunee Assistant Curator of Paleobotany Fabiany Herrera, with the able assistance of Akiko Shinya (Chief Fossil Preparator) and James Holstein (Collection Manager of Meteoritics and Physical Geology). Over 200 fossil plants were collected from the 52-million-year-old Fossil Lake Deposit, making this trip the most paleobotanically productive to date! All specimens were brought to Chicago and will be studied in the near future. Fabiany also had the good fortune of finding a fossil stingray, a very rare addition to our Museum, which is now part of the Vertebrate Paleo Collection. Additionally, at least 200 fossil fish were collected, with a dozen superb specimens added to the Museum collections. The success of this productive trip was due in large part to the help of volunteers Brian Morrill, Story Morrill, Stephen Gieser, Maxwell London, Jelle Wiersma, Caroline Cox, and postdoc Michael D’Antonio. Curator Emeritus Lance Grande, who first started S&B 20 years ago, participated in the classroom portion of the extravaganza.
July 26. 2024