The USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum is excited to host their Fossil Fest on October 26 through October 29. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Director of Paleontology, Dr. Josh Lively to get all the details.
The event kicks off with a Movie Night on October 26 at the USU Eastern Geary Event Center at 7:00 pm. “We decided to go with Jurassic World that’s one that Hollywood would let us show to a big group of folks. So yea that will be at 7:00 pm, I think on that Thursday night Oct. 26. Basically, we’ll share the movie there in the Geary Theatre, we can hold a ton of people in that space. Then after the movie I’ll have some fossils around and available from our collections which you normally don’t get t to see,” said Dr. Livley. The great thing about watching the movie is a lot of the creatures in the film are native to our regional area.
On Saturday, October 28 there will be free admission to the Prehistoric Museum all day. There is a full schedule of events that will be taking place on this day as Dr. Livley explains, “We’ll actually have activities basically running from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. But then we’ll have kids’ activities – paint your own cast of a fossil, we’ll do some more science-based activities, you can help us look for shark teeth under the microscope. At 3:00 pm we’ll actually do this mini event up in the museum classroom, where you’ll get to see the original Utahraptor fossils, so that animal was based on fossil originally dug up by our museum.” Normally, the Utahraptor fossils are not shared with the public but this event will allow guests to see this unique collection that is generally locked away.
All children are invited to wear their Halloween Costumes to the Second Annual Fossil Fest on Saturday because there will be Dinosaur Themed Costume Contest. “That’s right, because its right there by Halloween, wear your costumes, young and old, and you know get in to the Halloween spirit. Best dinosaur costume, it will be very objective, I will just pick my favorite and you’ll get some sort of prize, we’re still trying to figure out what prize to get,” said Dr. Lively. The winner of the contest will be announced at 3:00 pm.
On Sunday there will be a field trip taking off at 9:00 am till around 5:00 pm to Utahraptor country in Grand County. “So all the Utahraptors on the planet have been found in Grand County, Utah. So right here in our footprint for the Prehistoric Museum and we’ll be visiting some relevant sites. The Mill Canyon Dinosaur Track Site and will make a stop a the future location for Utahraptor State Park and a few other places in the Moab area to talk about Utahraptor, as well as, other fossils found in the region,” said Dr. Livley.
To learn more about the Second Annual Fossil Fest visit the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum website at https://eastern.usu.edu/prehistoric-museum/