Regular Monthly Meeting for March

Ichthyosaurs of Nevada

The Dallas Paleontological Society will meet on Wednesday, March 11th, at 7PM Central time, in the Spindletop Room (Room H126) of the Ellison Miles Building (Building H) at Brookhaven Campus of Dallas College, 3939 Valley View Lane, Farmers Branch.  Note that this is the usual building, but the smaller room.  For our program, Cole Counts, first-year student at SMU, will speak about “Fossil Hill, NV - The Emergence of Ocean-going Tetrapods”.

Nicholas (Cole) Counts grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and earned a BS degree in Geosciences from Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas.  During his studies he worked at the Sternberg Museum in Hays, named for the famous fossil finder George Sternberg and his family.  Cole then worked for several years as a professional geologist in Nevada, and volunteered with field campaigns in the Augusta Mountains.  Currently, he is a first year PhD student at Southern Methodist University, with Dr. Neil Tabor as his advisor. Cole intends to take a geologic approach to reconstruct paleo-environments and understand faunal change throughout the Triassic period.

Many people might be aware that Nevada has ichthyosaur fossils of Triassic age, which are displayed in situ at the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, which includes the ghost town of Berlin.  The Augusta Mountains, a different site to the north in central Nevada, is not as well known but has produced many ichthyosaur fossils and a more diverse assemblage than at the state park.

DPS meetings are always free and open to the public!  Anyone interested in fossils is invited.  Members can bring snacks and food to share, and the society provides bottled water.  Everyone can bring fossils for identification help or just to show them off.  The meeting will be streamed on Zoom at:  https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83096250920.  If the link does not work, start Zoom and enter the meeting ID of 830 9625 0920.  See you at the meeting!

DPS