The Mammoth Site has unveiled a temporary exhibit that’s part of a new program called “What’s In Your Backyard”…and that has nothing do with mammoths. The goal is to create more of a community atmosphere for those interested in paleontology as well as to expand education of the general public.
Chief scientist Jim Mead says the annual meeting of The Mammoth Site membership is always an exciting time especially when unveiling a new exhibit and a new program.
“We’re calling it ‘What’s in Your Backyard?’ explains Mead. “And all it is…is to get locals to say ‘You know…I’ve got this weird thing in the back yard.’ I don’t care if it’s archeological, geological, paleontological. Let us know what you’ve got. And we’re not gonna’ keep them. We want to study them. We’ll photograph…measure them…do whatever it is. Probably display them in our ‘What’s in Your Backyard?’ exhibit and then it’s yours…whoever owns it.”
The program is part of moving past being “just the bone bed” as Mead puts it and becoming more of a scientific facility that conducts varied research.
The exhibit is a group of fossilized cycades. The plants are usually found in tropical areas near the Equator but were common in western South Dakota during its very warm and very wet period…120 million years ago.
Cheryl Huddleston says her father, George Burg, found the fossils along the highway.
“He worked as a road surveyor across most of Western South Dakota when the Interstate was being built and some of the major road systems,” Huddleston comments. “So he was in locations where after he got done with work he’d go see what the graders and plows had turned up during the day.”
A small portion of Burg’s hundred-plus fossil collection is being shown as the first in The Mammoth Site’s ‘What’s in Your Backyard?’ exhibit.
Note: George Burg’s collection of cycade fossils – actually cycadeoid fossils, relatives of the modern day plants – are expected to be on display at The Mammoth Site for the next few months.
Related links:
The Mammoth Site
http://mammothsite.com/
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