As an elementary teacher, I was honored to attend NAPC, to speak of my involvement with the Fossil Project. During the week, I got a glimpse of the life of a paleontologist beyond the field. The paleontologists welcomed me in to their community, and patiently answered all of my questions. The sessions that I attended reignited my passion for science and left me in awe of the paleontologists- both professional and amateur.
University of California Riverside campus. Image by Denise Porcello
Behind the Scenes Tour at the LaBrea Tar Pits. Image by Denise Porcello
Midweek, I attended a field trip to the LaBrea Tar Pits and the Alf Museum. There is no substitution for place-based education. I left with a much better understanding of the time period, and the processes involved in trapping and preserving these ice age animals. The Alf Museum, with its world-class displays, and opportunities for learning, sets a unique example of experiential learning, allowing its students to make and report on real paleontological discoveries.
This was my first opportunity in my career to present professionally and the thought of doing so caused much anxiety. However, through the week I was encouraged by the authentic warmth and sincerity of the participants I met- which helped me to overcome my fear of public speaking while looking out at an impressive sea of faces: PhDs, PhD candidates, “amateurs” (in quotations because their knowledge is in no way at the amateur level!), museum directors, higher level teachers and international paleontologists. These scientists were genuinely interested in my experiences in the classroom and I enjoyed sharing my expected, and unexpected, outcomes of my involvement with the FOSSIL Project and myFOSSIL. My personal and professional knowledge has been deepened tremendously. In exchange, I can return to the classroom- to share my excitement and passion for science to the next generation of paleontologists, citizen scientists, and museum lovers (and their parents)!
Denise Porcello, Panelist on Accomplishments and Outcomes: Harnessing Digital Platforms and In-Person Events to Foster Community Relationships. Image by Jennifer Broo
The Sweatshirt Says It All…… Image by Denise Porcello
On June 22 through June 28 I was able to attend the NAPC 2019 conference in Riverside, California thanks to support from the FOSSIL Project. My involvement with NAPC was twofold: organizer Nigel Hughes asked me to chair a symposium illustrating Amateur/Professional collaboration and I was also involved as a presenter in the FOSSIL Project session.
Mid-conference field trip to the La Brea Tar Pits. Photo taken by Tom Bantel.
Evening dinner at the student union. Photo by Tom Bantel.
Mid-conference field trip to the Raymond Alf Museum of Paleontology. Photo by Tom Bantel.
My theme session titled, “Two to tango: amateur-professional interactions in advancing paleontological knowledge,” was co-chaired by Professor Emeritus David Meyer from the University of Cincinnati. One of my tasks was to invite both amateurs and professionals to be presenters. Naturally, I asked a number of people from my Dry Dredgers organization but thanks to the FOSSIL Project, I was able to enlist aid from the many contacts I have made through my association with this group. My FOSSIL Project friends also suggested people outside of my list whom I had not previously known. Filling our session would have been much more difficult had it not been for my contacts within FOSSIL. Because of these connections, our symposium extended beyond the original estimated half day into the afternoon. FOSSIL had had a similar symposium at the regional GSA in Pittsburgh in 2017 and we were mostly presenting to our own core group. At NAPC, however, we had upwards of 60 people in attendance at many presentations. NAPC organizer Nigel Hughes even mentioned our symposium in his opening remarks at the welcoming session for the entire conference.
One of the nicest things about NAPC and the FOSSIL Project connection was getting to see so many people again whom I had met through FOSSIL over the years.
Being involved with the FOSSIL Project since its beginnings has given me the confidence to do both poster sessions and oral presentations at professional conferences.
Kyle Hartshorn presenting in my session. Photo by Sarah Sheffield.
Lee Cone and I chatting at the auction event. Photo by Linda McCall.
Ben Dattilo pointing at Dry Dredgers during his talk (not in my session). Photo by me.
Conferences require thoughtful preparation. Months before the event, flights must be booked, lodging must be arranged, and formal registration must be submitted and paid for. If one intends to present a talk or poster, an abstract must be provided as well. Closer to the conference, one must also prepare the presentation or poster itself and, ideally, rehearse until one is full of confidence and not a lurking fear of everlasting shame.
Such were my presentations for the great North American Paleontological Convention of 2019. Having attended the previous NAPC in Gainesville, Florida back in February 2014, as well as many Geological Society of America meetings, I knew what to expect and preparations were made in due course. This time, I hoped, snowstorms would not delay my flight and cause me to miss half the conference!
Saturday, June 22, 2019: The Arrival
Awakening at 5:00am, I met my fellow Dry Dredgers at the Cincinnati airport: Tom Bantel, Bill Heimbrock, and Jack Kallmeyer (Figure 1). Security was overcome with minimal fuss and we were soon joined by Brenda Hunda and Jessica Kastigar of the Cincinnati Museum Center and Journal of Paleontology editorial board. As is typical, the Queen City would be well represented at the conference, with over a dozen current or former Cincinnatians in attendance.
Our flights were uneventful, disregarding a tight connection in Dallas-Fort Worth. In accordance with my first maxim of air travel—always get a window seat—I kept a close eye on our progress and the desert landscape below. My seat provided a good view of the mysterious Salton Sea and the peaks of the San Jacinto Mountains as we descended into the San Bernardino valley (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Left to right: Tom Bantel, Bill Heimbrock, Jack Kallmeyer.
Figure 2. View of Mt. San Jacinto on the flight to California.
Once on the ground in Ontario, a shuttle, helpfully prearranged by Jen Bauer and Sadie Mills of the FOSSIL Project, delivered us to the dormitories of UC Riverside. Establishing ourselves therein, we soon ventured out to explore the campus, familiarise ourselves with the local customs, and forage for food. Despite discovering an impressive selection of on-campus citrus trees, the later excursion was of little success and our famished party retired to the dormatorial convenience store to obtain supplies.
Our spirits restored, Bantel and I made directly for the UC Riverside Botanic Gardens, a noted local attraction of scientific and aesthetic interest. The gardens were well attended with both people and plants. The sections we visited were dominated by cacti, yucca, aloe, and other succulent plants, all novel flora to those of us more accustomed to the grasslands and forests of Ohio. Indeed, the landscaping of the UC Riverside campus was botanically interesting to a Midwesterner unused to the shocking purple of the jacaranda or the painterly bark of the eucalyptus. Some areas had still more exotic flora, such as cycads and thorny ceiba trees from Central America.
We then returned to the dorms, where the convention coordinators had thrown a party with local pizza and beverages, providing an opportunity to relax and mingle with friends and colleagues who I had not seen for months or more. As the party wound down, I again wandered off to explore the campus in the setting sun, before returning to the dorms for much-needed sleep.
Sunday, June 23, 2019: NAPC Day 1 – So It Begins
Figure 3. Jack and Tom on the walk in to the conference.
Jetlag can be useful, in certain situations. Given that 5:00am in California is equivalent to 8:00am in Ohio, an Ohioan getting up at their traditional hour in California can be up before dawn without being much more tired than usual. Our contingent used this to our advantage, getting up early and making our way across campus to see the buildings where the convention would be held (Figure 3).
Having confidence that we now knew where we were going, we then returned to the dorms and soon the dining hall, for a hearty and welcome breakfast. Ready for some paleontology, we joined throngs of other attendees at the plenary session and then the standard technical sessions. Standout talks included several on Cambrian lagerstätten, taphonomy, and Paleozoic extinctions. The food was also notably delicious, though the lines were notably long. A Mariachi band provided entertainment during a dinner of tacos.
The better part of my evening was spent assisting Ben Dattilo (Purdue University Fort Wayne) make final preparations for a talk he was scheduled to give the next day, removing or reorganizing slides provided by Carl Brett (University of Cincinnati). This preparation session was made somewhat more exciting when we encountered a black widow spider hanging midair in the breezeway leading to our dorms. However, the PowerPoint was completed without issue. I also made some contributions to my own presentation, which was scheduled for Thursday but had to be delivered on Tuesday, prior to the Wednesday field trip.
Monday, June 24, 2019: NAPC Day 2 – More Paleontology
The second day of the conference proceeded much like the first, although early morning exploration was replaced with last minute PowerPoint preparation of my own. I tweaked some text, added a few more pictures, and finalized the presentation just after breakfast. The file was loaded on a USB storage stick and later loaded onto the conference laptops. Preparations were complete and now it was time to enjoy the sessions.
Noteworthy presentations include Ben’s talk on Cincinnatian stratigraphy, a discussion of the sequence stratigraphy of continental systems by Steven Holland (University of Georgia), and various presentations about paleontology on public lands.
Dinner comprised a sumptuous buffet. A rather lengthy raffle provided the evening’s entertainment. Regrettably, I did not win anything.
Tuesday, June 25, 2019: NAPC Day 3 – Field Trip to Palos Verdes
Figure 4. Natural History Museum of Los Angelos County Collections
The mid-meeting field trip was a highlight of the convention. Participants had several options, including trips to the La Brea Tar Pits, Crystal Cove, and the Palos Verdes peninsula. I chose the latter, as I had already been to all three localities during my past trips to the Los Angeles basin, but thought Palos Verdes would be the most interesting to revisit.
The morning was foggy as we boarded a large tour bus and made our way through Los Angeles traffic to our first destination: a nondescript Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County storage warehouse. Inside, curator Austin Hendy and his colleagues regaled us with the history of the collections, showed us examples of Cenozoic fossils we might find later in the day (Figure 4), and allowed us to peruse the cabinets. Amusingly, I discovered a number of drawers full of Cincinnatian fossils, many from familiar localities.
After our quick tour of the collections, we set off for the Palos Verdes peninsula, a large hill situated south of Los Angeles proper, near the port of Long Beach. We spent the rest of the day at a series of localities on Palos Verdes, including sea cliffs (Figure 5), foggy hill cuts (Figure 6), and a very unassuming roadcut (Figure 7). Pliocene or Pleistocene collections were possible at all of these sites, though success was variable. My most interesting find was a tiny fossil sand dollar, about 1cm in diameter (a sand dime?), which I immediately gave to James Nebelsik (University of Tübingen), who has done extensive research on clypeasterids and other echinoids.
Figure 5. Palos Verdes cliffs.
Figure 6. Palos Verdes fog.
Figure 7. Palos Verdes roadcut
We returned to campus late in the afternoon. Our driver expertly navigating the treacherous Los Angeles traffic and we arrived in time to join the rest of the conference participants at a grillout.
Wednesday, June 26, 2019: NAPC Day 4 – Presentation Day
For those giving an oral presentation, a conference is often divided into two distinct epochs: before the presentation and after the presentation. The former has some degree of stress and anxiety. The latter is more leisurely and laid back. Thus I approached the time of my talk, a part of a broader section on amateur-professional collaboration cleverly named “Two to Tango”. My talk was entitled “Roadcuts After Dark: Adventures in Avocational Stratigraphy on the Cincinnati Arch” (Figure 8) and summarized the stratigraphy research that I have conducted with Carl Brett for the past six or so years. (For those unaware, the title is a joking reference to Dr. Brett’s propensity to spend a great deal of time at interesting outcrops, even after the sun has set.)
Figure 8. My title slide, Roadcuts After Dark.
Figure 9. Banquet seating.
Presentations are typically 12-15 minutes long, with a few minutes for questions if they are on the lower end of that range. Although that sounds like a decent amount of time, it flies past quite quickly when one’s brain is on autopilot giving the talk. Fortunately, my presentation went smoothly, coming in under the allotted time and with laughs at the desired jokes. Afterwards, several people told me they enjoyed the presentation, which is always uplifting to hear.
The culminating event of the day, perhaps even the conference, was an evening banquet held outdoors beneath a grove of trees and strands of lights (Figure 9). John Williams’ majestic themes from Jurassic Park provided topical background music. Seated with friends from the University of Cincinnati, we enjoyed the great food and drink. The night ended with lively dancing, perhaps an attempt to rival similar festivities at Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meetings.
Thursday, June 27, 2019: NAPC Day 5 – The End
Conferences often trail off during the last day or two. Some participants have already left, and sessions are typically shorter and less attended. So was the case with NAPC. The final day had several key sessions: a session on the FOSSIL Project in the morning and a session on the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event in the afternoon. But otherwise I spent the day chatting with friends and wandering around campus one last time. Following a closing party outside the geology building, I made my way to the top of a small hill south of campus, which turned out to provide an amazing view of the setting sun sinking into the valley and behind the mountains (Figure 10). A fitting end to a very enjoyable convention.
Figure 10. Riverside sunset
Friday, June 28, 2019: San Bernardino Mountains
I chose to remain in California for several days after the conference to see more of the region. Hitching a ride with my Dry Dredger compatriots to the Ontario airport, I procured a rental car and struck out east, intent on geological sightseeing from San Bernardino to Los Angeles. I drove back west through the San Bernardino Mountains, visited the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, spent some time in Angeles National Forest, and ended the day at Griffith Observatory, where the observation deck provided great views of both the city of Los Angeles and (through a telescope) Jupiter and several of its more prominent moons.
Saturday, June 29, 2019: Malibu
I spent Saturday along the coast, visiting Venice Beach, the Santa Monica palisades, and a variety of beaches near Malibu. I assume that most paleontologists enjoy beachcombing; I certainly do. Surprisingly large purple sea hares, a type of sea slug, were a highlight at Topanga Beach. Growing to rival the size and weight of a true rabbit, several of these huge blobby mollusks were washed among the wrack line.
As temperatures climbed at mid-day, I visited the scenic Getty Villa and its spectacular collection of Roman, Greek, and related artifacts. Then I made my way up into the Santa Monica Mountains and west to Point Mugu in time for a colorful coastal sunset.
Sunday, June 30, 2019: The Return
My final day in California comprised some minor sightseeing at a few local parks and a sudden flat tire on a highway right in the middle of the Inglewood oil fields. Fortunately, I was able to replace the tire and limp back to the rental car center in time to catch my flight. The return journey to Cincinnati was straightforward. No snowstorms this NAPC.
LESSON TITLE: myFOSSIL Educational Series: Fossils in the Making
AUTHOR (S):
Sadie Mills (University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History)
Sam Ocon (University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History)
Mary Jane Hughes (University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History)
GRADE LEVEL: 3th – 5th grade
TIME FRAME:
One 45-60 minute class period;
Video length: 5 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpdcpOlwCGU
DRIVING QUESTION: What constitutes a fossil and how do they form from prehistoric organisms?
LEARNING GOALS:
To engage and teach students the primary understanding of how fossils form through comprehension of rock
layers and evolutionary theory.
Develop the foundation for how paleontologists discover species that lived thousands to millions of years
ago.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Students will be able to define foundational terms such as paleontologist, fossilization and rock formation to
build on the understanding of how an entire species of an organism can go extinct and be preserved as fossils.
Click the link for the pdf of the full lesson with associated handouts:
FOSSIL Education Team Conference Recap by Rich Bex
Rich at SITE this year!
This past Spring, I had the opportunity to attend three conferences to present on research related to myFOSSIL and gain feedback on the myFOSSIL App. During March 13th-March 15th, I spent time at the Citizen Science Conference (CitSci) in Raleigh, NC. The CitSci 2019 national conference brought together researchers, practitioners, and participants with an interest in citizen science to share their ideas and practices. While at the conference, I was able to meet with experts involved in a variety of mobile citizen science projects with the goal of using their feedback and guide future updates to the myFOSSIL app.
Shortly after the CitSci Conference, I attended the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) 2019 Conference in Las Vegas, NV. This conference took place March 18th-22nd. I presented a paper on the use and usability of the myFOSSIL App. The study involved testing the app with high school students and a group of K-12 teachers. Findings from the study revealed that the App was perceived to be usable and users showed high satisfaction. The paper can be found in the proceedings for the Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/207762/)
Finally, from March 31st-April 3rd, I attended the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) 2019 Conference in Baltimore, MD. The NARST Conference focuses on the improvement of science teaching and learning through research. At the conference, I was joined by former FOSSIL Team member, Dr. Lisa Lundgren. Our presentation focused on the forms of social paleontological practices within the myFOSSIL website.
Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collectionsby Jen Bauer
Life size pterosaur at the Field Museum!
I attended SPNHC as representative of the FOSSIL Project team to share our recent advancements in the myFOSSIL eMuseum. In a session dedicated to small museum collections, I shared information about the eMuseum upload process, curation team, and underlying WordPress plugins. The talk was only 15 minutes but I encouraged the audience members to check out the mobile app and come talk to me about the plugins and their utility for small natural history collections. The following day, I participated in an Education Share Fair hosted by iDigBio’s education and outreach coordinator, Molly Phillips. I led a round table discussion with about 10 museum professionals about how myFOSSIL could benefit them and how we could form partnerships into the future. Most valuable from this discussion was the idea that people could have a badge or marker indicating they were interested in donating their specimens to a physical museum collection when they are no longer able to care for them so that these valuable scientific items can be safely stored for others to access in decades to come.
North American Paleontological Convention by Jen Bauer
Many members of the FOSSIL Project team traveled to Riverside, California to participate in NAPC. FOSSIL also sponsored the travel for a number of myFOSSIL community members. In total, our group submitted over 29 abstracts! The FOSSIL Symposium was a great success and had a non-traditional set up with four themes. Each theme had a spark that was meant to start the conversation, a panel discussion, followed by a total audience discussion. Each 45-minute block had a different theme where we could discuss different aspects of the project. Tune in to the final FOSSIL newsletter this fall to get all of the NAPC details!
Belgrade 2019 by Victor Perez & Fauve Wilson
We had another successful trip to the Belgrade Quarry, with more than 40 participants from the Special Friends of the Aurora Museum, North Carolina Fossil Club, Smithsonian, and Florida Museum of Natural History. The spoil piles set aside by the mine operators survived the heavy rains over the last year and accumulated some of the coarser material at the surface. This allowed for very successful surface collecting, followed by some dry screening. There were two notable finds this year: a protoceratid tooth (extinct deer-like herbivore) and a Notorynchus tooth (cow shark). Neither of these taxa were found during last year’s trip, so it was exciting to add them to our taxonomic list. We also received a few interesting donations. Eric Sadorf sieved matrix from last year’s trip and found a Mustelus tooth (smooth-hound shark) and a Gymnura tooth (butterfly ray), which we had not yet found at Belgrade. Progress continues back in the lab as we continue to process matrix and sort through all the new material collected this year!
Dave Bohaska, vertebrate paleontology collections manager at the Smithsonian, provides a site overview.
Participants spread out and scour the mounds for new fossil discoveries.
Sean Moran, PhD student from the Florida Museum of Natural History, dry sifting.
Southwest Florida Fossil Society by Michael Ziegler
Jim Davis (Vice President of SFFS, left) and Michael Ziegler (right)
On June 8th I had the pleasure of visiting the Southwest Florida Fossil Society (SFFS) in Punta Gorda, Florida. As the 2019 Mitchell Hope Scholarship Award recipient, the SFFS invited me to be a guest speaker during their monthly meeting. After being introduced to the society members, I presented on some aspects of my thesis research which aims to produce a paleoenvironmental site formation analysis of the local Montbrook Fossil Site. During the talk, SFFS members had numerous productive and thought-provoking questions that led me to view my analysis from a different prospective. Moreover, presenting to an audience of fossil enthusiasts helped me further refine the quality of my science communications skills when delivering research. After the meeting, one of the youngest SFFS members disclosed to me that she was interested in pursuing an education in natural sciences when she goes to college. Her interest initiated a discussion on career paths facilitated by the various experiences of her fellow SFFS members and myself. All in all, I am now honored to be part of the SFFS community and excited to see many of the members at Montbrook this upcoming field season!
eMuseum Updates by Jen Bauer
At NAPC, I met with a team of volunteer assistant curators who will assist with curating the specimens that are uploaded to the eMuseum. Every time someone uploads a specimen through the app or website it heads to a queue where the curators can access it. Each curator has site privileges that allow them to correct any taxonomic or time period typos they find in the specimen data. The curators will use their expert knowledge to help improve the quality of data uploaded to the museum. All specimens uploaded to the website will be examined by the curation team and subsequently curated. If the data are of a high caliber the specimen will be marked as ‘Research Grade’ and will be sent to iDigBio to be accessible to other researchers and the public. The team has started curating and we are working to get through the backlog of specimens on the website. So expect comments from the team working through all of the specimens on the website!
Other minor updates such as a global search bar, currently only on the home page but will soon be accessible from anywhere on the site. Soon you will be able to export a CSV file with your entire specimen collection from the website and create specimen labels to print out.
App Updates by Jen Bauer & Rich Bex
The Education and Outreach group has been very active in the myFOSSIL mobile app these past few months. Check it out on the app or on the web-based platform to see what members of the community are involved in! There is a new group in the app dedicated to fossils of Coastal N.C. This group was created a few months ago and has 21 members! Join in the discussion in the app or on the myFOSSIL website!
The myFOSSIL mobile app now has 359 total active users with about 31 active users per day over the past month. Users are spending about 5 minutes on the app, which is greater than many comparable social media platforms.
Updates are coming to the mobile app! This includes features such as moving the crop as you upload a photo and pinch and zoom to examine photos in greater detail.
Team Updates by Jen Bauer
The FOSSIL Project NSF funding will conclude at the end of September 2019. This will be our last regular newsletter issue as our last issue will be sourced from our community members that participated in the NAPC FOSSIL events this past June. If you are interested in contributing an article for the last issue please reach out to us!
Mary Jane Hughes has graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from the College of Journalism and Communication here at the University of Florida and is moving on from the FOSSIL Project team. Mary Jane has grown our Instagram community and helped the FOSSIL team cater their language, graphics, and content to a broad audience. She will be moving to Daegu, South Korea by the beginning of September to begin her new journey as an educator teaching English.
Graduation conformation with speaker James Patterson on May 3, 2019.
Mary Jane attending the SE GSA conference in March of 2019 to present on her research.
The 68th annual meeting of the Southeastern Section of the Geological Society of America (SE GSA) was held in Charleston, SC, on March 28–29. Members of the myFOSSIL team were in attendance, including Jen Bauer, MacKenzie Smith, Fauve Wilson, and Victor Perez, as well as the two social media interns, Sam Ocon, and Mary Jane Hughes.
Two of our team members completed oral presentations during the meeting on the second day of the conference. MacKenzie Smith presented on Thursday, March 28, 2019, from 3:40 – 4:00 p.m. and Fauve Wilson presented on Friday, March 29, 2019, from 11:15 – 11:35 a.m.
The social media interns presented posters of their research on Instagram posts and stories from the FOSSIL Project account (@thefossilproject). The poster session lasted from 9:00 –11:00 a.m. on Friday, March 29, 2019.
Oral Sessions:
MacKenzie Smith is a paleobotany Ph.D. student with the FOSSIL Project at the Florida Museum of Natural History. He presented on Thursday, March 28, 2019, on how to generate engagement with the paleontology community on YouTube. Using this social media platform for a different form of digital science communication, Smith gathered data to see if video format (genre) or topic has an effect on user/viewer engagement.
Fauve Wilson is a volunteer researcher in the vertebrate paleontology department at the Florida Museum working with paleontology graduate student Victor Perez to work through the fossils gathered at the Belgrade Quarry and determine the various ancient shark species found in Maysville, North Carolina. Wilson presented on the fossils discovered from the early Miocene Belgrade Formation sediment that was collected during the 2018 Belgrade Community Science event.
MacKenzie Smith presenting his work on considering what type of videos performs better on YouTube.
Fauve Wilson presenting on the shark and ray fauna found during the FOSSIL Belgrade 2018 trip.
Poster Sessions:
Samantha Ocon at her poster examining the utility of Instagram stories.
Samantha Ocon is a rising senior in geology specializing in invertebrate paleontology and science communication. She presented on Instagram stories as an understudied facet of Instagram that can be implemented to share and discuss information in an interactive and novel way. Ocon’s study defines metrics for educational Instagram stories while exploring methods we found to be successful at conveying paleontological knowledge. We developed a retention rate metric that measures viewership retention throughout a story. This is calculated by taking the number of viewers from the last slide, dividing it by the number of viewers on the first slide, and multiplying by 100. We also found that using interactive tools such as the poll sticker, provide insight into how engaged our users were with our content. Read the entire abstract by clicking here.
Mary Jane Hughes with the conference proceedings!
Mary Jane Hughes is a recent UF graduate who majored in Public Relations with a concentration in business and a passion for science communication. Her poster served as a visual representation to help answer the question: “What post types are most effective for generating followers and engagement with social paleontology in this social niche?” The social media team has collected data since the start of the account in an effort to better understand how this unique platform can be used to further engage with a diverse community, increasing participation and contribution to the science of paleontology. From these data, Hughes focused on creating a method of classifying the FOSSIL Project’s posts into six different types. These post types include Opportunity, News, Information, Promotion, Activity Updates, and Other. The results indicate that opportunity and informational posts garner higher engagement rates when compared to other types and have the potential to reach broad, diverse audiences. Read the entire abstract by clicking here.
Reflection from a non-scientist:
Sam and Fauve enjoying Charleston SC!
Coming from a communications background, visiting conferences is the hallmark for networking or finding your future co-workers and SE GSA did not disappoint. There was a variety of opportunities to meet others both within your field and in multiple areas of geology. One aspect that I did not expect were the vendors that sold a variety of gems and jewelry during the first night of the conference. I think this was a positive addition with the other activities and I could not pass up the opportunity to buy the FOSSIL Project’s logo, the ammonite. The poster sessions were well organized and very efficient to walk through when visiting each booth. The subjects ranged from three-dimensional geometric modeling to advances in geoscience education.
During the poster session Friday morning of the conference, there was excitement in the air and a strong aroma of freshly brewed coffee. Standing in one spot for two hours seemed to fly by once people started to approach the poster and ask questions such as “How do you find other paleontologists on Instagram?” and “Do you think this makes a valuable impact on the community?” Most of the conference-goers interested in the poster were also educators looking to utilize social media in their classrooms and develop a repertoire with the online paleontological community. Overall, I believe this was an enjoyable learning experience and even a non-scientist can have a great time!
This summer, I went to field camp. Field camp is often considered a tradition, or rite of passage, by the many geologists and paleontologists that were fortunate enough to have the opportunity. The phrase itself often conjures up both sweet and unsavory memories from many in our fields. So what is Field Camp? Field camp is an academically and physically strenuous capstone course required by many universities for geology and paleontology students. It often entails a month or more of fieldwork far away from campus. It is meant to teach students field skills that can’t necessarily be practiced in a classroom setting, like geological mapping or stratigraphic unit measurements. My field camp, with the University of Florida, took place around Taos, New Mexico over the course of 6 weeks.
Caught between a rock and a final exam.
Field camp is challenging both physically and mentally. The turn around rate for projects was typically 24-48 hours after returning from the field. Professors are expecting professional-quality maps and stratigraphic columns, so sleep was often sacrificed for double- and triple-checking our work. There were quizzes and tests, sometimes given in unconventional settings, like a bar on Route 66. Accompanying academic stress is mental stress.
Plant fossil found in the late Cretaceous Mesa Verde formation
You are sticking 20 college students together in a stressful environment with very little privacy. Although I was lucky to have a very good group of classmates, there was inevitably a little tension at times, especially near project deadlines. There were definitely moments where we were exhausted and sore, yet pushing on to finish our maps in time. Some of the field areas were daunting, involving long hikes with steep drop-offs on either side of the trail.
Field camp is physically the equivalent of a six-week-long marathon. We were hiking at least 4 miles a day (although, 6 is more accurate) through mountainous terrain with little time to rest. I have a long-term knee injury, so this was perhaps a little harder for me than someone with properly functioning knees. Many of the places we were working at were far from civilization and consequently, very far from medical assistance. Luckily, there were no life-threatening injuries during my field camp; however, we did thrive on pain medication to get through some of the harder days.
Ultimately, field camp pushed me to break past my limits. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but also one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. I was able to see parts of the country I had never seen before and understand the geological processes that shaped them. I became closer to some of the most amazing people. I became a better geologist.
Editor’s Note: Kyle W. Bostick is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Florida’s Department of Geological Sciences studying the biogeochemistry of fire-derived organic matter. His interests in paleontology stem from his early years collecting invertebrate fossils in Southwest Florida. In addition to his doctoral research, K.W. Bostick has taught “GLY1150L: Florida Geology” at the University of Florida.
An example GLY 1150L class experiencing the geology of “Real Floridaism” on a field trip. Photo by Kyle Bostick
Over the last three years, I have taught “Florida Geology (GLY 1150L)”, a single-credit geology course in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida (UF). One of the best parts of this course is it gives students a completely new geological perspective on the Sunshine State. The course takes a hands-on approach, relying heavily on 1) field trips to local geologic features, and 2) laboratory exercises using field-collected samples from these trips. While this course has existed for more than 18 years, we are actively improving its curriculum and relevancy by using modern teaching tools such as myFOSSIL.org.
After learning the basics of stratigraphy and Florida’s geologic history (in the first 4 weeks of class), the students arrive at what is usually their favorite part of the curriculum, paleontology. Equipped with plastic bags and pasta strainers, we trekked to Hogtown Creek and Three Lakes Creek in Gainesville, FL with the mission of collecting a wide variety of Miocene (5.3–23 million years ago) shark and ray teeth.
GLY1150L students in Hogtown Creek sieving for fossils, photo by Joshua Dawson
Example of two common shark teeth found by a student. Lower left is an upper tooth of Hemipristis serra (snaggletooth shark). Upper right is Negaprion sp. (lemon shark). Photo by Megha Mahapatra (modified by K. Bostick).
The fossils found in the Gainesville creeks perfectly illustrate the low energy coastal depositional environment of Florida during the Miocene. At this point in the curriculum, the students have learned about coastal depositional environments of the Hawthorn Group and Florida’s geologic history, but nothing drives home the message like seeing marine fossils more than 50 miles inland (e.g., shark/ray teeth, whale vertebrae, corals, foraminifera, etc.). After the collection trip, students are responsible for identifying, characterizing, and preparing a report of their shark teeth. Students are taught to use myFOSSIL and the Florida Museum of Natural History Paleontology Databases as quick fossil identification tools. This lab exercise involves measuring the vertical tooth height of shark teeth, ranking preservation, pooling class findings (to increase sample size), and characterizing the class fossil set using basic statistics. Students are also prompted to sign up for myFOSSIL to post two fossils they found on the trip. From here, we compare our findings to those found in our area by other amateur paleontologists.
Several other GLY1150L instructors have adapted this lab exercise for their classroom. Over the last three years, the lab exercise has been responsible for approximately 500 Gainesville fossils in myFOSSIL’s eMuseum. In addition, many of these students are actively engaged with myFOSSIL after the end of the curriculum. Not only do students get to use myFOSSIL as a great resource, but they also enjoyed being able to contribute to our ever-growing eMuseum.
Editor’s note: This interview was facilitated by Mary Jane Hughes and Jennifer Bauer
Describe your path to paleoart. Have you always been interested in ancient life? Did you come upon it randomly? Do you have science and/or art training?
A trivial hobby has become my future career, and some would say that’s like a “butterfly effect.” Every child has wild dreams, and in my childhood, I always fancied huge animals. I heard about dinosaurs early, but I always thought people made those things up. That changed when I was seven, reading about T. rex in a book titled 100,000 Why (shi wan ge wei shen me), a popular Chinese encyclopedia for children in the 1970s and 80s. Reading about dinosaurs amazed me: what a wonderful world! The Tyrannosaurus rex was real! Since then, I have been infatuated about dinosaurs, trying to know more and more about them. At that time, I was learning how to paint in the local youth community center, and when I got distracted in class, I drew dinosaurs. The teacher saw the sketches, was happy about them, even encouraged me to draw more. This was my life-changer, because at that time, everyone, including myself, regarded the painting of dinosaurs as an irrelevant digression, a pastime not worth mentioning. It is great having someone acknowledged the things you have been doing was worthwhile; the encouragement is powerful regardless of whether the encouraged is young or old. Subtly, my teacher’s kind words worked for a long time, sustaining me in painting dinosaurs. Then, my confidence got another boost from the recognition by professional paleontologists.
In 2006, when I was in my sophomore year, Dr. Wang Xiaolin, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, somehow got in touch with me. He asked me to paint a picture of a Jurassic mammal, Volaticotherium antiquum, a small animal that could glide. In an email attachment, Wang sent me the photo of its fossils and micrographs. Wang stated his requirements: the picture should show how the animal extends and contracts its wing membrane, set in a background of pines or ginkgoes, at dusk or at night.
The assignment filled me with excitement and joy. The difficulty of the job, however, soon became apparent. My first sketch contained fundamental errors: the animal’s limbs were too advanced for its evolution, and its membrane was of the wrong size. Fortunately, Professor Wang answered all my queries with patience and helped me get an ideal composition. In getting this job done, I started to understand the specific issues that I never thought about. For example, paleontologists are greatly concerned about the shape of an animal’s teeth. Hence the paleoartist must ponder about how to show this in the painting.
When I considered the job well done, the ginkgo trees in the background turned out to be problematic. Experts on that tree sent in their opinions telling me that the Jurassic ginkgoes have leaves which were palm-shaped instead of today’s fan-shaped. I corrected that. A month later, I got the news that the painting would appear on the cover page of Nature. This was a glory that I have never thought possible, the most significant encouragement I ever got, and it has been inspiring me to this day. When I reflect upon the job, I realize this: while it is important to see an opportunity as it comes, it is more important to make full use of it, to deliver the results perfectly.
Before my painting landed on the cover of Nature, I worked for some popular science periodicals and other media for some time, providing them with scientific dinosaur paintings. Technically, at the time, I had some vague thoughts about developing my career based on these jobs and put in some effort towards that. But, compared to the depth of the work I did for the Nature job, all previous efforts paled. From that point on, I realized that restoration in paleontology means something and bears responsibilities. Any art, as a form of expression, carries information. Restoration in paleontology is special because it is responsible for visualizing the learnings and achievements made by paleontologists. Artists who do this must work as hard as scientists, improving their work continually by trying to add more accurate information. So, strictly speaking, this job was the starting point of my career in paleontological restoration.
I took graphic design as my undergraduate major. Regrettably, my academic training in fine art was limited to the college’s few basic compulsory art courses, and I had no formal training in paleontology or zoology either. I learned techniques in oil, watercolor, sculptures, and digital painting, as well as animal anatomy and evolution by auditing classes from other departments or colleges, often informally. Whatever information I couldn’t get from these classes, I would try to find in libraries. Honing my painting skills took a lot of practice in my spare time.
After graduation, I spent many years working with scholars. During this period, I trained myself in science and art by doing projects, including observing fossils, asking scholars questions, and doing fieldwork.
Where do you come from most of your artistic inspiration?
Most of my inspiration comes directly from nature. The world’s best artworks appear crude and clumsy compared to nature’s creations. Hence, nature provides the best mentorship. For example, my work often deals with the texture of dinosaurs’ soft skin around their eyes and at their joints. If the dinosaur in question had scales, the best way to get reference will be to look at reptiles with fine scales to see how their scales arrange; if the dinosaur was closely related to birds, I could get information from birds with exposed and bare skin. Some dinosaurs have keratinous beaks and large plates; these can be compared to the structure of wild cloven-hooves’ horns, or large Geochelone’s mouth and back. I often look at how these tissues and parts get stained or wear out in the wild, because learning from these details then helps me depict how nature leaves its traces on animals.
I have seen extraordinary things like African buffalos got close to one another to warm themselves on a chilly night. Also, predators were not always hunting and killing herbivores, somewhat surprisingly, even if chances permit them to do so. I saw antelopes sometimes staying one or two meters from a group of hyenas, and neither group had any interest or concern towards the other.
Sometimes, I got inspirations for composition from my dreams. Many years ago, I painted a group of Shastasaurus, and I had a dream before the job. In my dream, the golden sunbeams were trying to break through purple clouds. Under the clouds were buildings that looked like bamboo shoots, with rough walls, while a group of gigantic airships flew slowly through them. This scene lingered on after I woke up, so I used the ideas and colors in painting that picture.
What form of media do you use, most frequently, to create your art? Was this the same as when you first started as an artist? Do you have a favorite media?
If I have the energy, I use all form of art that I can lay my hands on watercolor, acrylic, oil, ink or other composite materials; sculptures, digital painting, 3-D sculptures, or short videos.
My most commonly used form remains digital painting, a method that I had adopted since when I was a student taking part-time paleoart jobs. Hence, my work style is different from a traditional artist who preferred oil or sculptures. Digital painting differs significantly from paintings by hand; the former allows considerable freedom in choosing the size of canvass, picking a color from the RGB model, and adding layers; therefore, a digital artist works with a distinctively different set of logic. One can ignore the properties of the paints; one can forget about choosing tools, setting up the studio, or other steps in traditional painting that often drain the artist’s energy; by going digital, one can instead go straight into the subject. Digital painting can easily shape precise structures and provide more details. At the same time, this technique works efficiently and allows easy modification, suitable for my subjects.
Xinghaiornis: acrylic painting by ZHAO Chuang
Shastasaurus: digital painting by ZHAO Chuang
Yutyrannus chases Microraptor: oil painting by ZHAO Chuang
What is my favorite media? A hard question, since different projects require different specifics. To answer, I take three perspectives: In painting, I prefer acrylic and watercolor. Acrylic provides more vibrant colors, some of which are highly bright or fluorescent, properties that most other materials can’t match. Also, acrylic dries fast to become irreversibly insoluble, making it ideal for creating rich details and random effects. It also allows me to work on a variety of surfaces. In sculptures, I like doing real-sized animal sculptures. Many ancient creatures are impressive because they are huge. They used to be living beings, and if we could look at them, we would be awed by their huge size as well as the rich, fine details. I can think of no better way to present them than full-size sculptures. If I have the liberty to choose the technique I like, my favorite will be oil. The complex and slow creative process of oil painting is relaxing, gets me into the best mental state, and gives me more time to brood.
On the other hand, I always hope to use some techniques of Chinese ink and brush painting in my work, but I never have the time, with all I have done being some sketches. Still, I’m confident that this traditional approach can work wonders with paleontology, yielding incredible visual effects.
I found your project descriptions online, and much of it surrounds natural sciences: ancient life, exceptionally preserved fossils from China, constellations, humans and their relatives, and a lot of animals. Can you explain your decisions about themes for large projects like these?
Our project is called “PNSO’s Scientific Art Projects Plan: Stories on Earth (2010—2070),” created by me and my partner, Ms. YANG Yang, in 2010. YANG, a writer, happened to work for my publishing house in 2009 as a text editor. I was an art editor, so we got to know each other. Both of us were fresh graduates then, and we would talk about our hobbies, career plans, and aspirations. YANG is a small girl with great inner strength, is persistent, and works very hard. I can feel that she has a deep love for writing and a rare obsession in perfecting her pieces. Our editing work was somewhat related to what our real interests were, but I felt that she wanted much more, something bigger. I was good at painting ancient creatures, but not so good at writing well about the prehistoric world to let potential readers know about them. Then I developed an idea: I could work with YANG; I would paint, she would write, and together we could do something great. When I talked to her about it, she caught on and said she had that in mind, too. So, we both resigned and officially started PNSO, and that was the beginning of our 10-year cooperation.
Our first creative project is Darwin: An Art Project of Life Sciences. It traces the evolution of life on Earth, starting from the Cambrian explosion to the present day. We restored ancient organisms and paleoenvironment of various periods, aiming to restore all known extinct organ-isms. In this project, we recreated stories about Earth’s past.
The second is Galileo: An Art Project of Constellations, one that we work on astronomy and the universe. This project includes a wide range of topics, from celestial bodies to microscopic particles. For example, it has description or speculation about existing or emergent aerospace technology that has emerged or is likely to occur, and how stars and planets affected Earth’s ecology or human civilization (which includes the extinction events and the origins of mythology). Some of the more interesting things we have done were based on the constellations defined by modern astronomy, which had origins from Greek mythology or the era of great navigation.
Yangchuanosaurus vs Chungkingosaurus by ZHAO Chuang
Sede the Ankylosaurus by ZHAO Chuang
The third is Starland Paradise: A Project Creating A Wonderful Science Literature World for Children. The books for children in this series have a “soft” sci-fi nature, with the central theme being courage, dreams, and love. For example, we have produced a series called I Have a T-rex, telling how a little girl keeping a Tyrannosaurus rex as her pet. In this series, we tried to describe the finer points of our world.
The works in these projects are available to the public in the form of books, model toys, and exhibitions. These three projects by YANG and I represent Earth’s past, present, and future. We want to retell a new version of Earth’s story, both scientifically and using the language of art. Naturally, the work cannot be finished; it is impossible to restore all extinct creatures in our lifetime. We will, however, continue to do it, until we can no longer write and paint.
What are the most rewarding and challenging aspects of being a paleoartist?
Restoration in paleontology serves an important function: a paleoartist, like a good translator, should accurately translate cutting-edge research to the general public. Therefore, a paleoartist’s work is important and difficult: apart from creating impressive visual effects, it must be as accurate as possible.
Like industrial or architectural designs, restoration is about applying our imaginations and fantasies in the real world. The difference is that the designers try to depict things which are about to appear, while restoration artists work about things which are no longer with us.
One may say that, technically, the highest goal of paleoartists is to create a time machine that brings people back to that era to see every detail themselves. This is nearly always impossible since the perfect specimen we own still have missing details. Paleontologists must present hypotheses and arguments very objectively, refrain from being assertive or arbitrary about the parts that went missing. The scientific discourse on those parts then necessarily becomes laden with words like “may” or “probably,” but a piece of paleoart cannot leave the corresponding details blank. The greatest challenge for paleoartists, therefore, is to fill in those blanks with visual details. In addition to be thoroughly familiar with paleontology, one must acquire knowledge in other areas. For example, I often have to present the shape of an animal’s pupil, the colors of its skin, the posture as it moves, or other creatures and the environment at a particular prehistoric moment. I have to learn these things by studying other disciplines.
In addition to these technical details, to make an animal look “real” and “alive” requires skills that are not quantifiable or easily described. For example, I often think about an animal’s temper. Each animal has its own temper; some are aggressive, while others tend to mind their own business. How to make the animals in a painting “alive” is challenging.
Restored skeleton of the T.rex
Restored muscle of the T.rex
T.rex digital painting by ZHAO Chuang
Life-sized sculptures by ZHAO Chuang in the exhibition
Another contribution of restoration is to faithfully record the extent of progress, in paleontology and in other related sciences, from many perspectives. For example, the Iguanodon and Megalosaurus sculptures that remain standing in Crystal Palace, the United Kingdom, were the works of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. Today’s paleontologists may think of them as inaccurate, impossible monsters; nevertheless, they represented the pinnacle of paleontology in the era when they were built. No doubt, what we created today will be overturned many years later, but they will serve as stepping stones for future scholars and artists to aim higher. Eventually, they will become part of the efforts to recover our planet’s history.
Around 5 million years ago, Williston, Florida was a very different place. The gulf coast was much further inland than it is today, i.e. most of the land around State Road 24 out to Cedar Key would’ve been underwater. There was also at least one river that no longer flows through and tons of creatures roaming around, many now extinct. So far, through extensive digging efforts beginning in November of 2015, over 100 different fossil taxa have been discovered from this ancient river system. One of these taxa is a new genus and species of large heron described by David Steadman and Oona Takano and published in the Florida Museum Bulletin, Volume 55 (click here to read).
Hodge displays the fossil coracoid, the largest and strongest of three bones that make up a bird’s shoulder, from his namesake heron. Credit: Kristen Grace/Florida Museum
The new heron was given the scientific name Taphophoyx hodgei, pronounced taf-o-fi-ox hodge-i, which equates to a common name of Hodge’s Tiger-Heron. The authors chose the genus name because, “Taphophoyx is derived from the Greek words taphos, meaning grave or tomb, and phoyx, meaning heron (Brown, 1956:381, 408). Both words are masculine. The first half of the name Taphophoyx refers to the large concentration of fossils of gomphotheriid proboscideans at Montbrook, rendering the site the paleo-equivalent of an ‘elephant graveyard’.” The species name, hodgei, was chosen to “honor Mr. Eddie Hodge, who has been most generous to the Florida Museum of Natural History in providing logistical help and in granting permission to excavate and study the fossils discovered on his land.”
Recovered fossil specimens of the coracoid (UF 425443) and scapula (UF 431654) of T. hodgei in different views. Scale bars represent 10 mm
The holotype fossil specimen is a complete left coracoid and was discovered on November 9th, 2017 by a University of Florida student volunteer, Toni-Ann Benjamin. The paratype is a nearly complete left scapula discovered a few days later on November 16th, 2017 by volunteer Sharon Shears. The excavation area at Montbrook is gridded out in 1-meter by 1-meter squares and the two type specimens of our new heron were discovered in adjacent squares. They are also both left-sided and similar in size, allowing a reasonable assumption that these elements are from a single individual. The coracoid and scapula in birds makeup part of the shoulder region and play a major role in flight.
Toni-Ann Benjamin said, “I loved going to Montbrook every Saturday during the Fall semester because of the people I got to meet and the atmosphere was relaxing. I could just sit down and get lost in my thoughts digging for fossils.” Both specimens used to describe the new taxon were discovered in the field, but later deemed significant during the screenwashing and curation process back at the lab.
Eddie Hodge, center, holds a signed copy of the study naming a new species of extinct heron discovered on his property in his honor. Vertebrate paleontologist Jonathan Bloch, left, and ornithologist David Steadman visited the fossil site with Hodge to share the news. Credit: Kristen Grace/Florida Museum
In their publication, David Steadman and Oona Takano indicate that the two skeletal elements are the only ones yet discovered from Montbrook that belong to a heron. To better understand how the Montbrook heron compares to others, they looked at boney features on the coracoid and scapula across the entire family of modern and fossil heron. The features indicate a new taxon, possibly more closely related to the modern-day boat-billed and tiger herons than to other herons. Today, the boat-billed and tiger herons live throughout South America and north into Mexico, so inhabit a neotropical environment.
Size-wise, measurements of the new Montbrook heron are closest to those of Ardea cinerea (grey heron – Eurasian and African distribution) and Ardea cocoi (cocoi heron – South American distribution). Both of these herons are large, long-winged and long-legged waders, with body masses of about 1443 grams (~3 lbs).
Without the help of dedicated individuals volunteering their time to dig in the field and process fossils back at the lab, a majority of the most important discoveries from this 5-million-year-old river setting would be unknown to science. Since the excavation began in November of 2015, about 1,550 individuals have spent 479 days digging for over 25,700 hours. The next digging season will likely begin in November of 2019 and if you are interested in getting involved visit the Montbrook website by clicking here.
