Turners Falls RiverCulture Calendar
Jurassic Roadshow!
Saturday,
August 28, 2010
Saturday 11:00 am
to 3:00 pm
Details: 
Calling all fossil fanatics, rock hounds, and dinosaur diggers! Bring your rocks and fossils to the Jurassic Roadshow at the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls, where you'll find scientists and an appreciative audience of like-minded souls eager to see them! They don't really have to be Jurassic: rocks from anywhere and any era are welcome. Whether you have a dinosaur track, a fish or plant fossil, a piece of bone, a tooth, mysterious marks, or just plain weird, interesting, or beautiful rocks, bring them on down to find out what they are and let people ooh and aah over them.
Paleontologist Patrick Getty (University of Connecticut at Storrs) and geologist Steve Winters (Holyoke Community College) will be on hand to identify specimens and tell you something about their origins and composition. In addition, two highly knowledgeable local collectors, Ed Gregory and Paul Fontaine, will display special items from their personal collections of dinosaur footprints and other local fossils. The Discovery Center's collection also will be on exhibit, along with information on the history of the discovery of dinosaur tracks in the area in 1835 - the first known to science.
While all rocks and fossils are welcome, there will be special interest in specimens from our part of the world. The Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts is a geologist's heaven, with igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks all within a tiny geographical area. Hot lava produced hard basaltic ridges. The Mesozoic strata, unusual in New England, hold not only rare fossilized dinosaur footprints, but also fish and plants and such trace fossils as worm burrows, mud cracks, raindrop impressions, and ripple marks. Across geological time, our region has been hot and dry, it's been covered by glaciers, it's been filled with water, and all these paleoclimates have been preserved in the geological record.
Visitors are encouraged to bring stories about how they found their rocks and fossils to the Mesozoic Time Capsule, where the stories will be preserved as part of our local history. Did your grandfather find dinosaur tracks when he was a boy? Do you hunt for particular stones? Look for gemstones? Or just pick up whatever is pretty or interesting as a memento? We would be delighted to take a picture of you with your rocks or fossils and record what you have to say about them.
Jurassic Roadshow is co-sponsored by the Friends of Great Falls Discovery Center, Pioneer Valley Institute, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, The Trustees of Reservations, RiverCulture, and Ichnology Rocks!
Call the Discovery Center at 413-863-3221 for directions and general information.
For further information about this program, call Sarah Doyle at 413-863-9972
Great Falls Discovery Center
2 Avenue A
Turners Falls, MA
Tel: 413-863-3221
http://www.greatfallsma.org
Calling all fossil fanatics, rock hounds, and dinosaur diggers! Bring your rocks and fossils to the Jurassic Roadshow at the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls, where you'll find scientists and an appreciative audience of like-minded souls eager to see them! They don't really have to be Jurassic: rocks from anywhere and any era are welcome. Whether you have a dinosaur track, a fish or plant fossil, a piece of bone, a tooth, mysterious marks, or just plain weird, interesting, or beautiful rocks, bring them on down to find out what they are and let people ooh and aah over them.Paleontologist Patrick Getty (University of Connecticut at Storrs) and geologist Steve Winters (Holyoke Community College) will be on hand to identify specimens and tell you something about their origins and composition. In addition, two highly knowledgeable local collectors, Ed Gregory and Paul Fontaine, will display special items from their personal collections of dinosaur footprints and other local fossils. The Discovery Center's collection also will be on exhibit, along with information on the history of the discovery of dinosaur tracks in the area in 1835 - the first known to science.
While all rocks and fossils are welcome, there will be special interest in specimens from our part of the world. The Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts is a geologist's heaven, with igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks all within a tiny geographical area. Hot lava produced hard basaltic ridges. The Mesozoic strata, unusual in New England, hold not only rare fossilized dinosaur footprints, but also fish and plants and such trace fossils as worm burrows, mud cracks, raindrop impressions, and ripple marks. Across geological time, our region has been hot and dry, it's been covered by glaciers, it's been filled with water, and all these paleoclimates have been preserved in the geological record.Visitors are encouraged to bring stories about how they found their rocks and fossils to the Mesozoic Time Capsule, where the stories will be preserved as part of our local history. Did your grandfather find dinosaur tracks when he was a boy? Do you hunt for particular stones? Look for gemstones? Or just pick up whatever is pretty or interesting as a memento? We would be delighted to take a picture of you with your rocks or fossils and record what you have to say about them.
Jurassic Roadshow is co-sponsored by the Friends of Great Falls Discovery Center, Pioneer Valley Institute, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, The Trustees of Reservations, RiverCulture, and Ichnology Rocks!
Call the Discovery Center at 413-863-3221 for directions and general information.
For further information about this program, call Sarah Doyle at 413-863-9972
Great Falls Discovery Center
2 Avenue A
Turners Falls, MA
Tel: 413-863-3221
http://www.greatfallsma.org
