GSNZ SIG webinar - PALEOTalk
A Curator’s Guide to the Fossil Collections of the Geology Museum, University of Otago: 90 years of insights into the Natural History of Southern Zealandia
Presented by Marcus Richards, University of Otago.
The Geology Museum in the Department of Geology, University of Otago in Dunedin harbours a treasure trove of fossils spanning from insects to coconuts; tiny cockles to gargantuan whales - even including New Zealand's biggest fossil skeleton recovered to date - the 7 metre long plesiosaur, Kaiwhekea. The paleontological collections have many stories to tell us about the ancient ecosystems in what is now the modern-day Te Waipounamu/South Island and its surrounding environs. The specimens each come with a tale of how they were discovered and collected, often in a rather adventurous manner! Because the collections have a key purpose of being a resource for teaching and research, being the pickings of many past professors and students at the Geology Department over the past 90+ years, they can reveal how the foci of paleo research has changed over the past century.
Join the Paleontology Curator, Marcus Richards, to explore the vast breadth of time and space represented by the Geology Museum's ancient lifeforms. Learn about the knowledge they can teach us and discover what they tell us about the people who built this treasury to what it is today. We will finish the talk discussing current efforts to restore and safeguard this collection for future generations, as there is a team of staff tasked with caring for the thousands of specimens, each of which inform us about many important aspects of the story of Aotearoa/New Zealand.
The Zoom link will be sent to all members of the Paleontology Special Interest Group, The Zoom link is also available to all GSNZ members by contacting the Paleontology Special Interest Group convener paleontology@gsnz.org.nz).
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GSNZ member but not a Paleontology SIG member? No problem! Just log into the GSNZ website (top right of this page), go to your membership profile, click the "Subscriptions" tab, click "Apply a Subscription" and select "SIG: Paleontology" from the drop-down list. You'll automatically be added to the Paleontology SIG mailing list to receive notifications about other talks and activities.
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