Amateur Paleontologists Research Articles

Verhoeven’s Living Negritos and the Story of Zakharias Ze

Abstract A Catholic priest and amateur palaeontologist, Father Theodor Verhoeven (SVD) is best known for his discovery of sites on Flores Island (Indonesia) that yielded fossilized remains of Middle Pleistocene stegodons and lithic materials suggesting early occupation by pre-sapiens hominins. Eventually, these finds influenced investigations that resulted in the discovery of Homo floresiensis in Liang Bua cave. Verhoeven’s earliest fieldwork, however, concerned other Florenese caves, where he found Late Holocene remains of small-bodied Homo sapiens which he identified as ‘negritos’ or ‘proto-negritos.’ In this article, I present new evidence revealing that Verhoeven believed negritos survived on Flores as discrete populations during his own time and, moreover, that one such negrito was a fellow Catholic priest. Though Verhoeven died 13 years before the discovery of floresiensis, his views on both prehistoric and living ‘negritos’ suggest that he would likely—though ultimately incorrectly—have interpreted both as descendants of floresiensis and earlier hominin contemporaries of Middle Pleistocene stegodons. The significance of Verhoeven’s palaeoanthropological and archaeological discoveries for subsequent, professional research illustrates one of the most remarkable collaborations between academics and amateurs in the history of anthropology.

ПОСТМОДЕРНИСТСКАЯ РЕАЛЬНОСТЬ ДЖОНА ФАУЛЗА («Женщина французского лейтенанта»)

The present paper is aimed at studying the artistic mind of the modern English writer John Fowles as the creator of the original worldview in its postmodern style. It has been specified that British artistic culture does not demonstrate neither the extremes, peculiar to the art of “transition” or “frontier” nor sharp denial of everything that seemed inviolable. Inclining towards realistic forms of the English classics, a lot of postmodern authors, including Fowles, prefer a synthesis of the old with the new. This applies both to postmodernism and all avant-garde and neo-avant-garde movements, aimed at fundamental changing of the general ideas about the beauty and ugliness. “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, written by John Fowles, proposes such a postmodern synthesis in the context of the “playing with the past” thesis. In his novel, the author presents a special type of “new reality”, corresponding to the period of the profound changes inside the movement during the period starting from the end of the 19th century till the end of the 20th century. Instead of the typical for English literature “hero in search”, the novel under consideration demonstrates an existential type of a man. The above-mentioned hero, who is embodied in the images of Charles and Sarah, seeks his individual freedom and “corrects” his own destiny. It should be emphasized that gaining true freedom is possible only through overcoming various life and social obstacles associated with breaking class and social ties, as well as with great internal suffering. Fowles’s peculiar style of narration helps to reveal the main theme of the novel. The author uses postmodern irony, which is meta-irony, and pastiche. The method of “overlapping epochs” forms an original intertext whereby the semantic field of the novel increases. The literary significance of the outlined method is multifaceted: an elitist reader perceives text-subtext-intertext; a “mass” reader gets acquainted with the work at the level of an entertaining storyline. The author of the article also analyses a mythological component of the novel “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”. A mention should also be made that Fowles in the analysed work acts both as a creator and a destroyer of the socio-ethical and literary myth of the Victorian era. Of primary interest to the writer was the literary myth of the time of Queen Victoria, which in the minds of readers has long been romanticized and become a legend. Therefore, the article shows the connection of everything that happens according to the tradition of English romantic narration and the principles of reformation of characters and situations that no longer correspond to the romantic worldview. The ironic understanding of the gentleman’s code of honor and the object of his passion, the reduction of love conflicts and places of romantic meetings are illustrated by specific examples from the text of the novel. The present paper has also devoted considerable attention to the psychology of the protagonists as well as the problem of the plot and compositional unity of the novel “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”. It is proved that the development of the storyline of the novel is a polystructural and polysemantic phenomenon. If Sarah’s character combines the traditional features of both “woman with a secret” and “infernal woman”, then respect for Charles’s traditional aristocracy is being called into question: it is repeatedly mentioned that he did not receive a Cambridge diploma, that he is an amateur paleontologist, that he considers the possibility of getting married for money, and that there is a very strong element of carnal passion in his romantic relationship with Sarah. The article offers the author’s commentary on the compositional completion of the novel. It is argued that the trinity of the epilogue, first of all, explains the “world-chaos” antithesis. The formula of the dissipating world, according to the author of the article, was supposed to become the basis of the postmodernist text in the original version of the novel “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”.

The Belgrade PaleoBlitz: A pilot project to engage amateur paleontologists

The Belgrade PaleoBlitz: A pilot project to engage amateur paleontologists

Profile of Paul E. Olsen

Geologist Paul E. Olsen follows a simple guiding principle: obtain information from the geological record that is not available from other sources. Doing so has enabled Olsen, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (LDEO), to illuminate the history of the Solar System and evolution of continental ecosystems. Olsen, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2008, recovered a climate cyclicity record spanning 30 million years and discovered the largest North American vertebrate fossil assemblage at the Triassic–Jurassic boundary. His latest project is The Geological Orrery, a network of early Mesozoic geological records of orbitally paced climate that could lead to fundamental insights into physical processes of the Solar System. Paul E. Olsen. Image courtesy of Kevin Krajick (Columbia University, New York). Olsen was born in New York City in 1953, but after a series of moves he and his family settled in Livingston, New Jersey. Olsen says, “I was one of those awkward kids who knew all the names of the dinosaurs described in children’s and young readers’ books of the 1950s and was happy to tell anyone all about them.” When he learned that another Livingston resident, Silvio Crespo, Jr., found dinosaur footprints in the summer of 1968 at nearby Riker Hill on what was then the Roseland Quarry, he and friend Anthony Lessa hiked 1.5 miles to the site. There, they met amateur paleontologist Robert Salkin, who introduced them to vertebrate paleontologist Donald Baird, then at Princeton University, and Bobb Schaeffer, a curator and Triassic fish expert at the American Museum of Natural History. Baird facilitated a meeting with Princeton sedimentologist Franklyn Van Houten, who had interpreted the alternating gray and red layers of older strata in the Newark Basin as being paced by variations in …

Mary Anning, Alfred Nicholson Leeds and Steve Etches. Comparing the three most important UK ‘amateur’ fossil collectors and their collections

Mary Anning, Alfred Nicholson Leeds and Steve Etches form part of a long line of individuals who furnished a substantial addition to our understanding of marine and terrestrial ecosystems through collecting significant numbers of superb fossils. For all three collectors, fossils became a factor that dominated their lives, and their fossil collecting led to the discovery of numerous taxa new to science. Extensive collecting was made possible by the fortunate circumstances of living ‘in the right place at the right time’, close to fine-grained UK Jurassic deposits (Lagerstätten) with well-preserved large Jurassic marine reptiles. All three were highly-motivated and developed a considerable skill sets for discovering, collecting, preparing, conserving and displaying fossils. They developed personal and professional interactions with family and friends, and university and museum professionals, although their collecting resulted in variable recognition of their work. Each collector can be considered a complex mix of amateur and professional: Mary Anning, a professional fossil collector and amateur palaeontologist; Alfred Leeds transitioned from amateur to professional fossil collector, but remained an amateur palaeontologist; and Steve Etches has remained an amateur fossil collector and palaeontologist. However, all three exhibited an entirely professional outlook to collecting, and should be considered professionals of the highest degree. The impact of Mary Anning, Alfred Nicholson Leeds and Steve Etches has been critical for the development of Palaeontology as a science, and without whom palaeontology, with all its associated benefits to a wide scientific and non-scientific audience, would not be as rich as we currently know it.

Presentation of the 2014 Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Héctor Gerardo Porras

Good evening. My first words I want to say is to thank The Paleontological Society for their decision to recognize the work of Hector Porras as an amateur paleontologist. I met Hector in 2003 when he started as assistant manager of the Historic Museum of Muzquiz. We shared the two-story building, the museum was on the first floor, and on the second …

Seeking Shared Practice: A Juxtaposition of the Attributes and Activities of Organized Fossil Groups with Those of Professional Paleontology

This study sought to define the attributes and practices of organized fossil groups (e.g., clubs, paleontological societies) as amateur paleontologists, as well as those of professional paleontologists, and explore the potential for these two groups to work collaboratively as a formalized community. Such an investigation is necessary to develop design principles for an online environment that supports this community and encourages communication and shared practice among individuals with different backgrounds in paleontology and who are geographically isolated. A national survey of fossil group representatives and professional paleontologists was used to address the research questions. The results provide a rich description of the attributes and activities of both groups and are discussed in terms of three design principles for supporting the two groups in a form of collaboration and fellowship via a coherent shared practice within an online learning community.

Amateur paleontological societies and fossil clubs, interactions with professional paleontologists, and social paleontology in the United States

Considerable interest exists among lifelong learners in the USA about fossils and the science of paleontology. Unlike some other science-related groups, e.g., astronomy and ornithology, interest in fossils among amateur paleontologists is primarily focused within local clubs and societies with little national coordination. This paper presents the results of formative evaluation of the FOSSIL project, conducted after the project “Kickoff” meeting held at the NAPC (North American Paleontological Convention) in 2014. FOSSIL is developing a national networked community of practice that includes amateur and professional paleontologists. Our research indicates that more than 60 amateur fossil clubs and societies exist in the USA, of which almost 40 have elected to be part of the FOSSIL network. Overarching goals of this program include enhanced collaborations between amateurs and professionals, knowledge-building about paleontology, access to resources for lifelong learning, and development a viable learning community of practice focused on topics of common and societal interest, such as collections (including digitization), evolution, climate change, and K-12 outreach. In addition to more traditional means such as list-serves and newsletters, FOSSIL is developing an online community (myFOSSIL) and using social media (Facebook and Twitter) to foster communication and interactions among stakeholders, and thus promoting the concept of “social paleontology”. Bruce J. MacFadden. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA, bmacfadd@flmnh.ufl.edu Lisa Lundgren. School of Teaching and Learning, College of Education, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA, lisa.lundgren@ufl.edu Kent Crippen. School of Teaching and Learning, College of Education, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA, kcrippen@coe.ufl.edu Betty A. Dunckel. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA, bdunckel@flmnh.ufl.edu Shari Ellis. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA, sellis@ufl.edu

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Antonio De Angeli

It is my distinct honor to present Antonio De Angeli as the 2013 Harrell L. Strimple Award recipient. Certainly, no amateur paleontologist could be better qualified for the award. Antonio is an amazing scholar with a vast knowledge of fossil crabs, an expert artist and illustrator, a concerned conservator of the Italian fossil heritage, and a generous contributor to the research efforts of others. All this while remaining a modest, self-effacing individual. Antonio's professional life began as an apprentice goldsmith at the age of 14. From the age of 25 until he retired, he worked at Camponola Spa, crafting accessories for racing bicycles. I am not certain how it relates to bike racing, but Antonio encouraged me to purchase a Camponola corkscrew, a most wonderful device. His professional career was quite apart from his life-long interest in natural history. I first came to know of Antonio's work when Carrie Schweitzer and I were considering people to contact as regional experts who might support our work in assembling the revision of the decapods for the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Quite frankly, his research productivity and the extremely high quality of his work led us to the conclusion that he was a professional paleontologist. Antonio immediately expressed interest in being involved and, with the collaboration of his colleagues in Montecchio Maggiore, Italy, …

Fossil-Infused Beer, 75 Million-Year-Old Turtle Bones

If you’re an aficionado of craft beers made from ancient relics, then you will be happy to know that Lost Rhino Brewing in Ashburn, Va., is cooking up 650 gal of beer made with yeast teased from a 35 million-year-old whale fossil. It should be on tap at the end of May. To be known as Bone Dusters Paleo Ale, the thirst-quenching mind-bender is the brainchild of two scientists: Jason Osborne and Jasper Akerboom. Osborne, a mechanical engineer at the Janelia Farm Research Campus of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, was looking for a way to get people to talk about science while throwing back a cold one. As an amateur paleontologist and cofounder of the fossil-hunting group Paleo Quest, he hit on the idea of trying to recruit some yeast residing on fossils to make the beer. For that task he enlisted Akerboom, a microbiologist at Janelia Farm, who has ...

Les nodules fossilifères de la découverte Saint-Louis à Montceau-les-Mines

The collect of the fossiliferous nodules starts in 1979 in the Saint-Louis opencast mine at Montceau-les-Mines, France. A team of amateur paleontologists excavates more than 100,000 nodules containing very well-preserved fauna and flora from the Late Carboniferous (Stephanian).

Contributions by amateur paleontologists in 21st century paleontology

Contributions by amateur paleontologists in 21st century paleontology

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Dr. George H. Junne, Jr.

It is my great pleasure to introduce you to this year's recipient of the Harrell L. Strimple Award, Dr. George H. Junne, Jr. As I am sure you are all aware, the Strimple Award is given to an amateur paleontologist who has made significant contributions to our field of study either through research and publication, making outstanding collections of fossil material, or through public service such as promoting educational activities and fossil preservation. George qualifies on a number of fronts as a perfect Strimple Awardee. First I should tell you that George is Professor and Chair of Africana Studies in the School of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. He received his Ph.D. in Higher and Adult Continuing Education from The University of Michigan in 1988. Subsequently, George has written 5 books and published nearly 100 papers on topics ranging from a history of Blacks in the American West to slavery and the role of black eunuchs in the Ottoman Empire. He has spent several summers teaching at Bogazici University in Istanbul. Additionally, George is an accomplished and published photographer and in his spare time has been known to brew a pretty mean bottle of beer. None of this, of course, is why we honor him this evening. George first came to The University of Michigan, Museum of Paleontology in 1981 as a part time photographer, a job he held (along with bouncer at the beloved and sorely missed Del Rio Bar) while beginning his …

Les assemblages de vertébrés dans deux sites paléontologiques du bassin miocène de Savigné-sur-Lathan/Noyant-sous-le-Lude : La Guimardière et Pelmer (Maine-et-Loire, France)

ABSTRACT Clusters of vertebrates in two paleontological sites of the Savigne-sur-Lathan/Noyant-sous-le-Lude Miocene Basin : La Guimardiere and Pelmer (Maine-et-Loire, France). Two paleontological sites, La Guimardiere and Pelmer, of the Miocene Basin of Savigne-sur-Lathan/Noyant-sous-le-Lude are described here. These sites are located northwest of Noyant-sous-le-Lude (Maine-et-Loire, France). The geological contexts of Pelmer and La Guimardiere are distinct. The limestone substratum (Oligocene) can only be seen in the Pelmer site when the early Orleanian fluviatile sands may only be observed at La Guimardiere. The thickness of the Middle to Late Miocene marins shelly fossils varies between Pelmer and La Guimardiere. Between 1980 and 2003, both sites were exploited by amateur paleontologists. A collection of 2727 fossils of vertebrates were discovered. Currently, most of these fossils are stored in the paleontological collection of the “Musee du Savigneen” (Savigne-sur-Lathan, Indre-et-Loire, France). The ...

Deceiver, joker or innocent? Teilhard de Chardin and Piltdown Man

Arthur SmithWoodward, an expert on fossil fish and Keeper of Palaeontology at the British Museum (Natural History), made the official announcement of the discovery of Piltdown Man’ (Eoanthropus dawsoni) on 18 December 1912 at Burlington House in London. The announcement was sensational at the time and attracted interest in a purported new hominid species with a large cranium, apparently associated with an ape-like jaw. It was not until some 40 years later that Eoanthropus (Dawn man’) was discredited (Weiner et al. 1953; Weiner 1955), with Charles Dawson (a country lawyer’, as well as amateur archaeologist and palaeontologist) being identified as the probable perpetrator of a hoax in which human cranial fragments were combined artificially with the modified jaw of an ape (considered to be that of an orangutan), at Piltdown in Sussex. Despite extensive investigations and a plethora of publications, the exact circumstances surrounding the Piltdown hoax remain uncertain (Weiner et al. 1953; Weiner 1955; Spencer 1990a&b; Thomas 2002).

Sketching Rocks and Landscape: Drawing as a Female Accomplishment in the Service of Geology

Women as amanuenses have played an important role in early British geology. Among their varied tasks often was the sketching and drawing of fossils, landscape and outcrops. Such drawings served several purposes. They were used to give an idea of landscape and outcrops in publications or to figure new species in palaeontological papers, but they also served as proxies for individual fossils in dialogues conducted by means of letters. Mary Anning used them to advertise new finds to potential buyers, while Mary Buckland painted huge displays to be used in her husband's lectures. Drawing was part of the education of ‘accomplished’ British women in the early nineteenth century. Like music, embroidery and dancing, drawing was often taught in special schools or academies, sometimes by quite competent artists. Other women, however, such as Mrs Mantell, were self-taught or had to familiarise themselves with new techniques, learning to do line engravings and how to make lithographs in order to illustrate her husband's books more cheaply. In Germany or France, by comparison, the ability to draw was less central to girls' education, who in Germany at least were expected instead to excel in cooking, knitting and other household duties. But even there, an amateur palaeontologist might fall back on the assistance of his daughter, when he needed someone to illustrate his letters with drawings of specimens.

On Piltdown: the possible roles of Teilhard de Chardin, Martin Hinton and Charles Dawson

ABSTRACT Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) was a Jesuit priest, philosopher and palaeontologist. A number of his letters and publications are examined, including those written from Paris almost immediately after the announcement of the controversial “Piltdown Man” (Eoanthropus dawsoni) which included a human cranium and the jaw of an ape. The first cranial fragments were obtained by Charles Dawson (an amateur palaeontologist) in 1908. The hoax or joke was not exposed until 1953. Writing to his cousin Marguerite Teillard-Chambon during World War I, some time after facing questions about Piltdown, Teilhard expressed a troubled mind, associated with questions and “circumstances in which I was necessarily involved”. He refers to a theological solution, through use of the words “eminently sanctifiable” (sanctify can mean to purify or free from sin). Writing to his theological friend Edouard le Roy from China, he makes a brief comparison between Sinanthropus (Homo erectus) and “Piltdown Man”. His comments are discussed in the context of the possibility that he was aware that E. dawsoni was not a genuine hominid fossil. A scenario is given whereby Martin Hinton, a zoologist and palaeontologist based at the British Museum (Natural History) was one of the perpetrators, associated with a joke aimed initially at Smith Woodward who formally announced “Piltdown Man” on December 18, 1912. In terms of this scenario, Hinton approached Teilhard in London (some time after August 11, 1913) to assist in exposing the joke. The painted canine of an orangutan was discovered at Piltdown by Teilhard on 30 August 1913, but was found in an area that had already been searched. The canine was accepted as a hominid tooth by Smith Woodward, instead of being recognised as a joke. Thereafter Teilhard appears to have been reluctant to write or say very much about “Piltdown Man”. A review of certain documents lends support to the hypothesis that Hinton, Teilhard as well as Charles Dawson were involved. Statements from both Teilhard and Hinton claim to suggest that Dawson was innocent in the case of Piltdown, but Dawson was evidently implicated in many forgeries and cannot be excluded as a person who was partly responsible.

PRESENTATION OF THE HARRELL L. STRIMPLE AWARD OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY TO THOMAS E. WHITELEY

It is a great pleasure to introduce Dr. Thomas Whiteley, the 2004 recipient of the Harrell Strimple Award for outstanding amateur paleontologist. Although not a professional paleontologist, Tom was always a scientist: as a chemist he had a highly successful career with Eastman Kodak in Rochester. Born in California, he worked his way eastward: after receiving a BA from the University of Colorado and a master's at the University of South Carolina he joined Eastman Kodak Research labs, in 1956. Following a brief stint in the US Army, he returned to school and received a PhD for his work on carbohydrate chemistry from The Ohio State University in 1960. Inevitably, Tom's interests led him back to Rochester and Eastman Kodak, where he eventually became associate director of the research labs. But already, by the early 1960s, Tom was being lured out on weekends into the fabulous outcrops of western New York, pursuing his avocation of paleontology and especially collecting and studying trilobites. During my early years at the University of Rochester I developed a great deal of respect and admiration for Tom Whiteley and quickly realized that he was a cut above most amateurs with his approach to field study, his meticulous documentation and cataloguing of fossils, and his outstanding photography. I clearly remember my first meeting with Tom when I was a beginning instructor at Rochester, in 1978. He invited me out to his lovely home to present a talk to the local mineral and fossil club; I drove out to Tom's house in a blinding snowstorm and nearly went off the road, arriving over an hour late. But he was very gracious, showed keen interest in my talk on obrution deposits, and suggested that he wanted to work on this topic himself. He showed me some of his …

Fossils: The Key to the Past

Richard Fortey, 2002, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., 232 p. (Softcover, $27.50) ISBN: 1-58834-048-1. Fossils: the Key to the Past was originally published over 20 years ago. With the third edition of this book comes some reorganization of chapters, but it remains a good introductory book for amateur paleontologists. Fortey states the goal of this book is “to stimulate the reader to further study and enjoyment of our geological legacy.” His goal is achieved with this easy to read book that is targeted for novice paleontologists with the scientific vocabulary kept to a minimum, excellent color plates, and discussions of some of the hot topics in paleontology. All these factors educate the readers and leave them longing to know more about climate change, mass extinctions, and how humans use and interpret fossils. This book is not written for most PALAIOS subscribers, but all paleontologists should think of this as a handy book for friends and family when they get tired of explaining to them what it is you do for a living. Give it as a gift or direct them to it, and maybe your friends will come back with some interesting questions about your profession instead of asking you the cliched question of “Have you been on any good digs lately?” Chapter 1, “Buried in the Rocks,” is a basic introduction to fossil preservation with an emphasis on soft-part preservation and trace fossils, and includes some helpful figures. Fortey covers the importance of taphonomy and why it is essential for paleontologists to recognize diagenetic features and fossil-preservation bias in their efforts to reconstruct the past. Fortey illustrates this point with the example of the Iguanodon being first reconstructed with its thumb on its nose. Chapter 2, “Setting the Stage: Time and Change,” is a brief history of early attempts …

Ancient Trackways in Strip Mine Threatened by Reburial

A group of amateur paleontologists is racing to save a site extraordinarily rich in animal tracks from the time of the early diversification of reptiles, some 310 million years ago.