Fossil Club

Fossil Club Displays at Patuxent River Appreciation Days
The Ecphora: Newsletter/Journal of the CMM Fossil Club, Click here. 
 
Fossil Club Membership 
Join the Calvert Marine Museum Fossil Club and increase your knowledge of life in the Miocene and take advantage of special field trip opportunities. Click here for an application/renewal form. 

Fossil Club Meetings

 
Meetings are scheduled on a quarterly basis on Saturdays and begin promptly at 1 p.m. in the lounge on the top floor of the museum. All meetings are open to the public - you do not have to be a current CMMFC member to attend a meeting. Members are encouraged to come early to see the new on-goings at the museum and to bring and set-up their own recent fossil finds. Various related fossil topics, club issues, etc. are discussed at the meetings, as well as updates from the Paleo Staff of the Calvert Marine Museum on recent finds and new additions to the museum's permanent collection. Whenever possible, these new items will be on display. Beverages and snacks are usually provided and additional "finger food" contributions are always appreciated. Meetings are an hour to an hour and a half in length and are, whenever possible, followed by a free public lecture by a visiting distinguished guest at 2:30 p.m. in the Harms Gallery. 
2018 Fossil Club Meeting and Lecture Schedule:

Saturday, September 22: September's Fossil Club Meeting starts early at 12 p.m. in the 3rd floor lounge, followed by a public lecture in the Harms Gallery at 2:30 p.m. Dr. Mary Schweitzer will speak on soft-tissue preservation in the fossil record.

Saturday, November 17: Potluck lunch, meeting and presentation at 12:00 p.m. Location to be determined.

Fossil Club Field Trips

 
For all trips, contact Bob Ertman at robertertman@msn.com or 410-533-4203 as soon as possible, but no later than Thursday before the trip. Remember to include your cell phone number. Please remember to call in for yourself and family members, or for another club member, on the date and time indicated. Current memberships in both the Fossil Club and the Calvert Marine Museum are needed to go on the trips. Information on directions, lodging, meeting times and meeting places will be provided at the call-in.

2018 Field Trip Schedule:


Sunday afternoon, September 9: Purse State Park. Meet at the parking lot at noon. Aquia formation, Late Paleocene. This site is on the Potomac River in Charles County, MD. Well known for abundant crocodile ray, Otodus, and Striatolamia teeth, and internal molds of the gastropod Turritella (more than you can carry out). Access to the site requires a moderate hike through the woods, and sometimes rather strenuous hiking and climbing over trees along the water's edge. Upon reaching the Potomac, we will walk south along the river to the most productive areas. There will be small sand shark teeth all along the way. Low tide (LIverpool Point) is at 1:26 p.m.

Sunday afternoon, October 14:  Hardy County, WV. Trilobites! We'll return to an old favorite that is productive again, the roadside quarry at Lost River, near Wardensville (Jasper Burns locality 17). Early Middle Devonian (about 390 million years old); Needmore Formation.

Saturday, November 24:  Odessa, DE. This is a John Wolf Memorial Trip. Meet up is 9:45-10:00 a.m. near Middletown, DE. We will move on to the farm in Odessa to walk the fields and collect petrified wood (cypress), probably originally deposited in the Cretaceous or Paleocene Rancocas Group and later redeposited in a Pleistocene bed. No special equipment is necessary. In fact, you should leave your tools at home so that we do not do anything to cause erosion on this no-till farm.

Fossil Club Elected Officers & Volunteers*

 
Billy Palmer, President: 
Paul Murdoch, Vice President: parapaleo@aol.com
Christa Conant, Treasurer: christa101@comcast.net
Donald Morgan III, Secretary: Donald.Morgan@calvertcountymd.gov
Christa Conant, Membership Chairperson: christa101@comcast.net
Stephen Godfrey, Editor*: Stephen.Godfrey@calvertcountymd.gov
Robert Ertman, Fall Field Trip Leader*: Robertertman@msn.com
Robert Ertman, Spring Field Trip Leader*: Robertertman@msn.com