Wyoming Paleontology
March 15 (Tuesday), 6 p.m., Teton Co. Library Auditorium – Open to the Public. Presentation: “Wyoming Paleontology: Fossils that inspired a Nation.” Presented by Laura Vietti, Geological Museum & Collections Mgr.; University of Wyoming.
Wyoming has an extremely rich and continuous fossil record that has forever impacted the field of paleontology – across the U.S. and indeed around the world. Dr. Laura Vietti, Univ. of Wyoming Geological Museum and Collections Manager, will provide a three-part presentation that will cover:
1)) Wyoming’s Phanerozoic geologic past (last 550 million years), explaining why fossils are especially common in Wyoming and highlighting several important fossil localities across the state;
2)) the historical discovery of Wyoming’s fossils including the 1880’s and 1900’s ‘Bone Rushes’, the controversial ‘Bone War’s, and the founding of the University of Wyoming Geological Museum whose collections once rivaled those of the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Natural History Museum; and
3)) provide a focused discussion on fossils recovered from Teton County.