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Description
Join us at the Museum of Arts & Sciences for a fun and exciting day of fossils, marine specimens, minerals, ecology, and more!
Free for members or with paid museum admission.
Schedule:
10:30am “Renovating the dinosaurs and other creatures of Deep Time” –Join Matthew T. Carrano Research Geologist and Curator of Dinosauria and other fossil vertebrate collections at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
Learn about the Fossil Hall at the Smithsonian, how it was renovated, and how it re-posed the dinosaurs including the mounting of the Smithsonian’s Tyrannosaurs rex. Dr. Carrano is the lead curator for the renovation of the paleobiology halls/Deep Time Initiative and served as part of the core team for the design of the National Museum of Natural History’s learning center, Q?rius. Carrano is active in professional societies and a published researcher, expedition leader, and media and publishing consultant with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His research specialty includes large-scale evolutionary patterns within Dinosauria; systematics of basal Theropoda; vertebrate paleoecology of Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems; and the dinosaur fossil record.
11:30am Fossil Sharks and Evolution with Amateur Paleontologist and Fossil Shark Researcher Bill Heim
Bill Heim’s expertise in fossil sharks has led him into working closely with the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland and published research for the Smithsonian Institution. Bill has researched fossil sharks from Florida to the Mediterranean. Join Bill Heim and learn about fossil sharks and their evolution from Megalodon to more common shark species. Learn about shark tooth shapes, functions, and teeth replacement. Discover the difference between ancient sharks and modern species.
12:30pm Window onto a World of Giants with Smithsonian Paleontologist Matthew Carrano
Over the last two centuries, paleontologists have discovered more than 2,000 species of dinosaurs, and yet we have just begun to understand them as once-living organisms. Dinosaurs “ruled the Earth,” but what did they really do in their ecosystems? How different was the world of dinosaurs from our own? The answers come in surprisingly small packages but paint a vibrant picture of the Mesozoic world. Dr. Carrano will discuss how tiny vertebrate fossils reveal a trove of information, from large-scale evolutionary patterns of dinosaurs, to how dinosaurs varied across landscapes and changed over time.
1:30pm The Fossil Hunters TV Show with Director and Producers Donald and April Brunning
FOSSIL HUNTERS’ TV SERIES is currently in its 5th season and broadcast throughout Central Florida on Saturdays at 4pm. on Ch. 15 WDSC-TV. This science-based reality TV series follows a group of friends and amateur paleontologists as they search for fossils of extinct prehistoric creatures including mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths, dire wolves, Megalodon sharks, and giant tortoises. Recently the cast had the opportunity to travel to South Dakota and search for 68-million-year-old Cretaceous fossils of Mosasaurs. Even though they only had a few precious hours one day to fossil hunt, they found some fantastic fossils! Join the cast as they discuss their newest episodes and share their amazing finds! A question & answer session with the cast will immediately follow their presentation.
