These were our featured presentations for 2009.

SATURDAY at 1:00 PM - In the Lecture Room

Steven Veatch will present the detailed story of Florissant’s mammoth. During the last Ice Age the mighty mammoth roamed the hills and valleys of Florissant, Colorado. Eleven thousand years ago they vanished from the face of the earth. Join Steven Veatch as he reveals the exciting discovery and step-by-step recovery of mammoth remains that have been buried in the ground near the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument Visitor Center for at least 49,000 years. This discovery represents a relatively high elevation for mammoths and is the first documented mammoth in Teller County, Colorado. Throughout the western United States, mammoths are generally associated with other animals indicative of open habitats that are quite different from the high elevation forests of today. The Florissant fossil beds are world renowned for the fossil plants and insects from the paper-thin shales of the Eocene Florissant Formation. Fossils from the overlying Quaternary sediments are rare.

Bio: Steven Veatch is a geoscientist and an adjunct professor of Earth Science at Emporia State University in Kansas where he received an MS in Earth Science. Steve has been involved in geoscience education initiatives for almost 25 years. He is a contributing author of 2 books: Field Trips in the Southern Rocky Mountains, USA, Field Guide 5, and The Paleontology of the Upper Eocene Florissant Formation, Colorado. Steve has also written numerous articles, essays, reviews, and monographs on geoscience topics. He has presented more than 15 papers at regional, national, and international meetings on climate change, paleoecology, dinosaurs, trace fossils, mammoths, and the Ice Age (Quaternary). As a result of his research interests, Steve has led numerous expeditions in western North America, particularly Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico. Steve teaches graduate classes on geoscience courses for the Colorado School of Mines in the Special Programs and Continuing Education (SPACE) department.

Steve credits his intense passion for the Earth Sciences to his family. His great-great grandfather, a hard-rock miner, grew up in Caribou, a mining camp near Boulder, Colorado in the early 1870s. On the other side of the family, his great-grandfather came to work at the Elkton Mine, one of the big producers in the Cripple Creek District. Steve, coming from a mining family, was destined to make a rock collection and spend a lifetime searching for rocks, minerals, and fossils.

SATURDAY at 2:00 PM - In the Lecture Room

Ammonites are an extinct class of cephalopods that thrived throughout the world's oceans in the Lower Devonian (Mid Paleozoic) through the last of the Upper Cretaceous (Mesozoic). They exist only as fossils found in marine rocks of the world. They were common, abundant, variable, predatory, intelligent, cephalopods that manufactured and lived in a thin, hard aragonitic shell, similar to the modern Nautilus. Within their beautiful shell lies the record of their life, or at least of the traumatic events of their life.

Although more then 10,000 species of ammonites have been described to date, it is estimated that perhaps more than ten times that number probably existed throughout the ages of the Earth. They were one of the most successful and abundant animals in the ocean, yet, near the end of the Cretaceous about 66 million years ago, all known ammonite species become extinct. This extinction event also included most known dinosaurs species and about 50% of all other known marine and terrestrial species. It is still undetermined why ammonites died off, while nautiloids, squids and octopi survived. It is through the study of these fascinating animals that we get a look at their life and likewise a glimpse to the prehistoric past of this place we call Earth.

Bio: Neal received a B.S. in Geology from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD in 1977. Since graduation he has served as vice-president, preparator and curator of Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Inc. He is President of the Board of Directors for the Black Hills Museum of Natural History since 1992. He is currently scholarship chairman, past-president, and past-secretary/treasurer for Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences. He is secretary of the Board of Directors of the Journey Museum in Rapid City and chair of their public programs and exhibits. He is also a member of many geol/paleo related organizations in this country. Neal helped accumulate one of the finest privately held fossil collections for Black Hills Institute. Has had two books on ammonites published (with another nearly done), and has written numerous papers and given scores of talks related to ammonites and dinosaurs. Has helped with the creation of the Black Hills Museum of Natural History; organized, hosted, and MC'd two major paleontogical symposiums "100 Years of Tyrannosaurus rex" and "A symposium on the Paleontology, Geology, and Stratigraphy of the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, a tribute to the life of William Aubrey "Bill" Cobban." Neal was in charge of developing, designing & building "From Dinosaurs to Deadwood, discovering Dakota Territory" a temporary historical/paleontological exhibition on the history of fossil collecting in the Black Hills Region for the Journey Museum, in Rapid City, SD. He is a photographer for Black Hills Institute and for the Art of the Hills magazine and assists his wife with her gallery "Dakota Nature and Art". Neal has been married for 28 years to Brenda Larson, has 5 children, and 5 grand children. Like many of you, he has collected rocks, minerals and fossils since childhood.

SATURDAY from 2:00 – 3:30 PM - On the main floor (north end)

Book Signing: Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Road Trip

The book was written by Ray Troll, author and artist, and Kirk Johnson, PhD, chief curator and vice president, Research & Collections Division of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway recounts the zany adventures of Troll and Johnson as they drove across the American West in search of fossils. Much of their travels were spent in remote places where they discovered small-town museums packed with paleontological treasures, rock quarries that have yielded hundreds of fossils, and ancient seashores tracked with dinosaur footprints. There are fossils everywhere, but it takes knowing what to look for to find them—especially at 65 miles per hour!

SATURDAY at 3:00 PM - In the Lecture Room

The formation of silicified wood preserving detailed cellular histology was once considered a molecule-by-molecule replacement of carbon by silicon, but investigators during the past 30 years have discovered that this form of petrifaction is considerably more involved. Today, this process is thought to be a product of initial supramolecular templating of polymerized silicic acid molecules via hydrogen bonding to available polysacchrides in woody tissue. This templating process is followed by additional silica emplacement, the subsequent transformation of these compounds into amorphous materials, and eventually to stable crystalline phases.

Leo and Barghoorn, in their landmark paper of 1976, Silicification of Wood, in Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, v. 25, no. 1., proposed the first detailed mechanism for templating and validated some of their ideas by replicating the initial stages of wood silicification in the laboratory. Silica derived from devitrification of tuffs or other sources produces monosilicic acid in ground water, which can eventually polymerize into higher molecular-weight species. These large molecules, containing copious numbers of hydroxyl bonding sites, can easily penetrate even small vascular tissue in plants. They orient themselves to form hydrogen bonds with the polysacchrides and other large carbon-based molecules that compose cellulose and lignin in the plant. This process is termed templating, and a silica lithomorph is produced. As the remaining original carbon tissue continues to degrade, additional hydroxyl sites become available for templating by polymerized silica.

At this point, the silicified wood does not resemble the hard durable material that collectors favor. Additional silica must be added to fortify the antecedent wood by a combination of deposition over the initially emplaced silica and by permineralization or addition of silica in remaining voids. Later, the templated silica loses hydroxyl ions and begins to form amorphous opal. [Come to the presentation to learn more!]

Bio: Richard Dayvault was born in 1948 in a small town near Charlotte, N.C., and began collecting rocks, minerals, and fossils when he was 7. These interests never abated and eventually he earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in geology from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He took a job as a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy in 1979 and moved to Grand Junction, Colorado. He has remained in Grand Junction since then performing various jobs for the DOE. They include the study of uranium deposits in volcanic environments, petrographic studies of tight gas sandstones, environmental restoration of uranium mill tailings sites, and most recently, working with the uranium leasing program. Dayvault is a registered geologist and has contributed articles to a number of geological guidebooks produced by the Grand Junction Geological Society. He collects minerals, fossils, and has been especially interested in fossil woods for the past 14 years. He has been a consulting editor to Rocks & Minerals magazine for over 30 years. In 1998, he contributed to the book Petrified Wood: The World of Fossilized Wood, Ferns, Cones, and Cycads and, in 2006, coauthored Fossil Wood: A Closer Look at Ancient Forests.

SATURDAY at 4:00 PM - In the Lecture Room

Abstract coming soon!

Bio: Dick Hauck is a founder and current president of the Sterling Hill Mining Museum...

SATURDAY at 8:00 PM - Saturday night Special Event Lecture in the Palm Court of the Denver Merchandise Mart's Main Building

Kirk Johnson, Ph.D., chief curator and vice president of the Research & Collections Division, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, will present an account of his zany adventures with Ray Troll, author and artist, as they crossed the western United States in search of fossils. This trip resulted in the book, Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Paleo Road Trip. Learn that fossils are everywhere: it only takes knowledge of what to look for in order to find them-especially at 65 miles per hour! Much of their travels were spent in remote places where they discovered small-town museums packed with paleontological treasures, rock quarries that have yielded hundreds of fossils, and ancient seashores tracked with dinosaur footprints. There are fossils everywhere. Come discover how to find them.

Kirk Johnson, Ph.D., chief curator and vice president, Research & Collections Division, Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Ray Troll, author and artist.

SUNDAY at 1:00 PM - In the Lecture Room

Join Steven Veatch and the Princeton Scientific Expedition of 1877 and experience the adventures and discoveries made in Colorado by a group of college students. Thrill to the previously unpublished handwritten journals kept by some of the student scientists. Learn about fabulous fossil discoveries and the unsung role of a local pioneer woman in the paleontological bonanza near Florissant! See rare historic photographs documenting early paleontological work in the area, including the Garden of the Gods!

Bio: Steven Veatch is a geoscientist and an adjunct professor of Earth Science at Emporia State University in Kansas where he received an MS in Earth Science. Steve has been involved in geoscience education initiatives for almost 25 years. He is a contributing author of 2 books: Field Trips in the Southern Rocky Mountains, USA, Field Guide 5, and The Paleontology of the Upper Eocene Florissant Formation, Colorado. Steve has also written numerous articles, essays, reviews, and monographs on geoscience topics. He has presented more than 15 papers at regional, national, and international meetings on climate change, paleoecology, dinosaurs, trace fossils, mammoths, and the Ice Age (Quaternary). As a result of his research interests, Steve has led numerous expeditions in western North America, particularly Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico. Steve teaches graduate classes on geoscience courses for the Colorado School of Mines in the Special Programs and Continuing Education (SPACE) department.

Steve credits his intense passion for the Earth Sciences to his family. His great-great grandfather, a hard-rock miner, grew up in Caribou, a mining camp near Boulder, Colorado in the early 1870s. On the other side of the family, his great-grandfather came to work at the Elkton Mine, one of the big producers in the Cripple Creek District. Steve, coming from a mining family, was destined to make a rock collection and spend a lifetime searching for rocks, minerals, and fossils.

SUNDAY at 2:00 PM - In the Lecture Room

Bio: In addition to his affiliation with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Bob Raynolds is a consulting geologist who has lived in Denver for more than 15 years. His doctoral work examined the sedimentary rocks that accumulated at the foot of the Himalayas. This experience led him to study similar deposits in the Denver Basin. Raynolds earned his doctorate in geology from Dartmouth College and a Masters in Applied Earth Sciences from Stanford University. He has taught at the Center for Excellence in Geology in Peshawar, Pakistan, at Dartmouth College, and the Colorado School of Mines where he is an adjunct faculty member.

Recent results of research on depositional environments in the Denver Basin during the Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary have shown that the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers accumulated as a series of fluvial distributary fans derived from the growing Front Range. By studies of analogues in Bolivia he has been able to develop predictive models for aquifer distribution and quality in the area south of Denver. He teaches classes at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and at the Colorado School of Mines. His recent efforts focus on the impact of climate change on Colorado's ecology and water resources.

SUNDAY at 3:00 PM - In the Lecture Room

The earliest stories about fossils in Colorado begin with in the diaries of the argonauts, the gold hunters who were on their way to the placer deposits in South Park. They mentioned seeing "the fossilized white pine stumps" (at Florissant) on their way in 1860. In 1861, the first recorded mammoth tusk and tooth were unearthed by miners digging in Soda Creek in Idaho Springs. Soon, educated scientists were on their way to the wild West to discover new "antidiluvian" monsters. When schools started, the science teachers took their students on field treks and discovered all sorts of fossils - clams from Bear Creek, petrified wood from Green Mountain - all found their way either into the collection cabinets at Jarvis Hall in Golden or to Washington to the USGS or eastern museums where the material was quickly described and given new names.

The early collectors ranged from school students to very educated teachers like Arthur Lakes at Jarvis Hall, what became the Colorado School of Mines. Fossil plants from the Dakota and Denver formations made their way into the literature and into the collection at Mines. Lakes often gave talks about the Fossils of Colorado, especially after he discovered the dinosaur bones outside of Morrison. Some of those early CSM specimens are displayed at the show. The USGS and other resident scientists formed the prestigious Colorado Scientific Society in 1882. They amassed a tremendous collection of fossils and minerals with names like Samuel Emmons, Whitman Cross, and R. C. Hills in the "collector" lines on the labels. Jesse Randall, the editor of the Georgetown Courier amassed a private collection; some of his material found its way to the School of Mines and some got absorbed into the U. Colorado Boulder natural history museum. George Cannon, one of Lakes' earliest students, went on to become a noted teacher in the Denver Schools. He presented many talks describing the fossils of the Denver area to the CSS and other organizations which are very helpful in identifying early fossil collecting localities. This talk will tell the exciting tale of fossil collecting in Colorado when everything was a new and different species.

Bio: Beth Simmons, Ph.D., a frequent speaker at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show, is a geologist turned Colorado historian. She serves as the historian of the Colorado Scientific Society with access to their archives and secretary of Friends of Dinosaur Ridge where her research of Arthur Lakes' collecting led to the discovery of many of his specimens at CSM and in other collections throughout the Denver area.

The Friends of Dinosaur just published "A Legacy of Arthur Lakes" co-authored by Beth and Kathy Honda (available at the Dinosaur Ridge booth in the club area). Anyone interested in the early collecting history of the Denver area should invest in this fantastic volume that presents all of Lakes' written works on a CD-ROM in the back of the book.

Events for other years can be seen here:

2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004

 

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