The Texas Science & Natural History Museum hosted a fossil identification event on Oct. 15 in celebration of National Fossil Day, encouraging people to talk about their parking lot, park and backyard finds with paleontologists.
“Everyone loves to discover something, but most folks don’t have access to the resources they need to understand what they found,” Liam Norris, a paleontologist at the event, said. “Inviting people into this environment where they can get some of that context and have access to that knowledge is really great.”
Students, families and professors alike attended the event, bringing pieces of prehistoric fossils, including ammonites, snail shells, a mastodon molar and bison foot bones.
“Nature has still so much to teach us,” said associate director Pamela Owen, who has organized the museum’s National Fossil Day activities since they began 16 years ago. “I like to remind people that we are all part of nature, and I think fossils are a great way to make that connection, … (it) kind of blows your mind thinking ‘I’m holding on to this fossil that’s 100 million years old, and this organism was alive.’”
Although focused on bones, the event teaches more than one lesson, offering people a chance to speak and interact with scientists. One of the most common questions for Norris, aside from questions about fossils, is how he became a paleontologist.
“They hear about us, we’re out there somewhere, but they’ve never seen (a paleontologist) in the flesh,” said Steve Wick, the education associate and paleontologist at the event. “As soon as a kid sees that and hears it, they’re just (at a loss for words).”
Norris said the event fosters relationships between scientists and the community.
“Not only is (the event) allowing them to correctly identify what they found, but it also helps build community,” Norris said. “It takes scientists who are often construed as these, far-off lab coat-wearing aliens, and shows us as people you can have a connection (with).”
Elizabeth Catlos, associate professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences, brought a collection of unlabeled fossils from UT to learn about them and share the information with her students. She believed the fossils were prehistoric and relevant to the class, with the event confirming her suspicions.
“When you go to the park and you’re looking for fossils, maybe you come across one and you’re like, ‘Is that really a fossil?’” Catlos said. “Being able to identify them and tell your family or tell your friends, I think that’s kind of fun.”
Complementing the identifications, the museum holds an extensive collection, which the team uses as a teaching tool. When a visitor brings in a fragment, the paleontologists pull out a complete specimen to reveal the full picture.
“We’ve got plenty to show (vistors),” Owen said. “We’ve got a whole education collection (with) all these fabulous skeletons on exhibit, so there’s just great opportunities to learn, even if you don’t have something to be identified.”
