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World-Class Scientists to Attend PaleoFest
By Peggy Werner urpee Museum’s PaleoFest will bring to Rockford some of the world’s leading scientists to speak about their research on fossilized plants and animals. These puzzle pieces help us to understand life from its earliest beginnings. In its 21st year, PaleoFest is open to the public Saturday and Sunday, March 2-3, and features workshops, family lectures and sessions for teachers who want to bring the most current research information to their classrooms. All events are at the museum, 737 N. Main St. PaleoFest attracts specialists from around the world but also has something for all ages, says Burpee Museum Executive Director Anne Weerda. “PaleoFest is an opportunity to celebrate the ongoing research and specimens at Burpee and other museums,” says Weerda. “The talks are designed for dinosaur and fossil enthusiasts of all ages.”
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A members-only reception will take place Friday, March 1, at 6 p.m., followed at 7 p.m. by an address from Burpee’s Engellehardt-Moore Director of Paleontology, Joshua Mathews. Mathews, from Milton, Wis., was working on his Master’s degree at Northern Illinois University when he began volunteering as a fossil preparer in the Burpee paleontology lab, in 2004. He joined a small Burpee expedition to southeastern Montana in the summer of 2005. On that trip, the Triceratops, Homer, was discovered. Further excavation in 2006 revealed multiple Triceratops specimens, making it the first documented Triceratops bone bed, which became the focus of Mathew’s Master’s thesis. He’s now working on his doctorate degree at NIU. Mathews has been involved with PaleoFest since 2005 and seen it grow. “The event attracts people who want
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to learn about history and are curious about what the world was like before we walked this earth,” he says. “They are literally seeing another world and piecing together stories to see how plants and animals lived millions of years ago.” On both days, doors open at 9 a.m. with family workshops and activities for all ages from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Replicas or reproductions of specimens from museums around the country will be auctioned off throughout the day. Saturday evening will begin with a 4:30 p.m. cocktail hour and a 6:30 p.m. dinner catered by Franchesco’s. Keynote speaker Sanna El-Sayed of Mansoura University in Egypt will give a presentation at 7 p.m. She is the first woman vertebrate paleontologist from the Middle East to have her work published internationally and is the vice president of the Vertebrate Paleontology Center, the first
