Tate Conference... Marine Reptiles ... June 4-6

[jpc]

Greetings good people of the fossil forum...

 

I stand before you all this afternoon to let you know of an event happening at the Tate Geological Museum in Casper, Wyoming on June 4-6.  

 

Yes, it is the 26th annual Tate Conference!   The theme this year is Marine Reptiles.  We have speakers from all over the map (including a few  virtual folks speaking form Europe), talking about mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, sea turtles and even Tanystropheus (one of my personal favorites).   Talks will be here on the Casper College campus and will be all day on Friday the 4th.  

 

As usual, we are having two days of field trips as well with the conference.  Saturday we will head out to the Cretaceous Pierre Shale in  eastern Wyoming for mosasaurs (and fishes) and with some luck,  a plesiosaur.  With a ton o f luck we turn up a sea turtles or pterosaur or bird.  On Sunday we will go into the Jurassic Sundance Formation to look for ichthyosaurs (and the ever-present belemnites) and maybe an plesiosaur.  Friday conference attendees get priority for spaces on the field trips.   

 

Registration and a list of speakers and talks can be found here:

https://www.caspercollege.edu/tate-geological-museum/events/conference/

 

I would love to see a few folks form the forum show up. 

 

Casper College has done away with mask ordinances, but we will be encouraging masks and social distancing.  Masks are still required for the field trips... the automotive portion.  

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hadrosauridae]

Oh man, thats the same weekend as the Casper half marathon.  If only I could make it up there.  What a great confluence of events for a paleontology loving runner.

[jpc]

5 minutes ago, hadrosauridae said:

Oh man, thats the same weekend as the Casper half marathon.  If only I could make it up there.  What a great confluence of events for a paleontology loving runner.

I had no idea....

 

 

[LabRatKing]

Registering shortly. ScienceMobile is roadworthy and has plates. I suspect I’ll show up a bit early with some donations….

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

Is there any way to listen in to this remotely (or, alternatively, find presentations back online later)? Sound like a very interesting conference, but a bit difficult to join from Europe...

[jpc]

2 hours ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

Is there any way to listen in to this remotely (or, alternatively, find presentations back online later)? Sound like a very interesting conference, but a bit difficult to join from Europe...

Actually yes, we will be making this available online.  Stay tuned here for details.  

[JohnJ]

48 minutes ago, jpc said:

Actually yes, we will be making this available online.  Stay tuned here for details.  

 

This is awesome, @jpc.

 

I have a particular interest and tiny contribution to Josh's research.  He is an excellent speaker, and he is doing solid research.

 

Quote

• Josh Lively, Utah State University, Eastern Prehistoric Museum. “Evolutionary dynamics of mosasaurs in the Western Interior Seaway and the diversification of Mosasaurinae.”

 

[jpc]

16 hours ago, LabRatKing said:

Registering shortly. ScienceMobile is roadworthy and has plates. I suspect I’ll show up a bit early with some donations….

most exciting... Thanks.

 

[minnbuckeye]

This is an exciting post! Unfortunately, I have already volunteered my time for that first week in June. 

 Will you post this again next year? Pretty please with a fossil on top! Two questions though. You do not need to be a paleontologist to participate? And on the field trips, do you get to keep your finds (unless museum worthy)? 

 

Mike

[jpc]

2 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

This is an exciting post! Unfortunately, I have already volunteered my time for that first week in June. 

 Will you post this again next year? Pretty please with a fossil on top! Two questions though. You do not need to be a paleontologist to participate? And on the field trips, do you get to keep your finds (unless museum worthy)? 

 

Mike

will do.  I try to rememebr to post it here every year...

 

The conference is aimed at the general public.  I ask the speakers to do their talks for an educated interested public.  

So, no, you do not need to be a paleontologists to attend. 

 

And yes, on field trips you can keep stuff the museum doesn't want.   Which will be most stuff.  

[val horn]

i am looking forward, can not be there for all of the conference, but it looks like there are still opening for the saturday and sunday digs and will sign up for one.

[jpc]

Message to folks interested in joining the Tate Confernce on Friday... virtually.  (copied from my boss).  
 

This is a mass email to let you all know that our first ever hybrid conference may not go as planned. A pipe that was located just above the campus server room burst last week taking out all of our internet servers. The IT department has been working since last Friday to fix the connectivity break, but no one knows if we will have internet or not by Friday. If we do have internet, (and we may not know until Friday morning) we will go ahead with the conference as planned via the link below.

https://caspercollege.zoom.us/j/97934888153?pwd=UjVPTkdONnpJNnFaR2hCRDhUdFFaQT09

 

If we don't have internet on Friday, we will offer all in-person attendees a modified conference experience. We will still have our in-person talks on Friday morning and are looking at an additional half day field trip to a local site  in the afternoon. The rest of the conference (Thursday icebreaker, Friday dinner and trivia, Sat & Sun field trips) will all go ahead as planned. 

 

 

jpc

[LabRatKing]

Well, that's just bad luck. I had planned to attend in person, but got pulled to tromp through the marshes of the gulf coast this morning...still looking for worms...thank god fossil excursion 2021 is just a few weeks away.

[jpc]

Have fun.  Gotta add that registration for in peron is closed.  We gave the food people the numbers they need today.  BUt if virtual happens.. that will be free.

 

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

That really is a shame, it sounded like a real interesting program. I'll still give it a try, but seeing as the timezones as well, I'm afraid most of it'll take place when it's still the middle of the night around here anyway...

[jpc]

Update-

 

The computer guys got out internet fixed, so the Tate Conference is a Go! Use the link above to join via Zoom at 8 AM mountain time.  It will run til 5 PM or so.  

 

Three cheers for IT folks!

 

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

Just thought I'd check just now, and it appears the site is off the air again? Pity...

[hadrosauridae]

3 hours ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

Just thought I'd check just now, and it appears the site is off the air again? Pity...

well, its 6:52 am in CAsper as I type this.  ITs still early

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

2 minutes ago, hadrosauridae said:

well, its 6:52 am in CAsper as I type this.  ITs still early

 

Hah! You're not going to tell me I calculated the timezone offsets the wrong way around... Knew I shouldn't have done that yesterday evening just before going to bed...!

 

But good to know... I believe the program should start in about 30 minutes, if I remember correctly then (I can't currently access it, hence my conclusion the network was down...)?

[hadrosauridae]

Well, I tried going to the main website and it wouldnt load, so they may be having network issues still.  I hope they can get it solved quickly.

[DPS Ammonite]

It is up and going. 

[Top Trilo]

I was watching via Zoom for five hours (the first hour and half and last 3 and half hours) and really enjoyed it. Even though there were some bumps with internet and making it so people can see the slides weather they were in the room or in zoom I learned a lot, good job JP.

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

I fully agree! Although I could only join for a small part of the conference due to family and obligations at work, it was really great being able to attend this way. As said: I learned a lot. My thanks to everybody involved in making this work!