Our Education Program- Donated Fossils

[fossilsonwheels]

Fossils on Wheels got our first donations of fossil materials for our education program this week. My son and I have donated some of our fossils and loaned the rest. Since we are applying for a 501c3, we have to keep careful track of our fossils. IF they are paid for by Fossils on Wheels money, they belong to Fossils on Wheels. If they are purchased with our money, we donate and loan. Donations belong to Fossils on Wheels, not my son and I. I think that clarification is a good thing to let people know about because donations come from our new friends private collections and they are given with the intention of being used for education and given to the kiddos we educate. My son and I do not sell fossils. Fossils on Wheels will not be legally able to sell fossils. We will also not be trading donated fossils. They are strictly for education purposes. If you do donate fossils, we can track how they are used and verify where they end up.

 

We had two donations this week and we want to thank our donors. The first donation was from @JBMugu and included a lot of shark teeth and mammal bones from Sharktooth Hill a.k.a Round Mountain Silt. Most of the teeth will be given to students from Paradise and Chico schools. A small number will stay in the program for shark tooth ID labs. A couple dozen of the teeth are headed to the Gateway Science Museum as a separate donation. The mammal bones will be used in our intermediate school education programs that focus on classification and evolution. All of these fossils, except for one ear bone, will be used for hands on exploration of fossils. The ear bone, I think it is from a small Odontoceti, will be used as a presentation piece for the evolution lab.

 

We also got a donation of some super cool shark teeth from @caldigger and information explaining some of the differences in the fossilization process and why different fossils from different locations look different. We do want to explore the process of fossilization and how geology lets us learn about the natural history of the planet. This donation included a super cool split tooth that shows in the process perfectly. These teeth are for the presentation and the kids will get to handle a few of them in ID labs as well. 

 

We just wanted to thank our donors and to let our fellow TFF members know how much these donations help us with our goal is bringing fossil education to our local children.  

 

The first picture is various verts from STH. The large one, bottom left, is a cetacean. It looks very similar to a couple of Tiphyocetus verts from STH that i have. There is another large one which I would think would be cetacean. The smaller mammal verts I am not sure about. There is also a shark vert.

Second picture is STH shark teeth. There C. hastalis, planus, plus a few tiger sharks and a few I am unsure about right now. Some still have STH dirt on them and I am thinking about having kids clean them during a lab.

The third picture is the shark teeth from @caldigger including our first Pygmy White Shark teeth from morocco, some beautiful mako teeth and a few others that I need to ID.