Schedule:
Saturday, March 2, 2024
8:00 am - Doors Open at Main Museum   
9:15 am - Opening Remarks at Riverview Room     
9:30am-10:00am - Dr. Daniel Vidal, University of Chicago at Riverview Room   
10:00am-10:30 am - Dr. Victoria McCoy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee “Biomolecules in amber: a window into a unique mode of fossilization” at Riverview Room   
10:00am- 11:00am - AoE- Cryolophosaurus- How We Fill In the Blanks at Mahlburg Auditorium     
10:30am-11:00am - Lecture Break         
11:00am-11:30 am    Abdullah Gohar, PhD Student, Oklahoma State University “Egyptian Eocene cetaceans revealing insights into whale evolution” at Riverview Room   
11:30am-12:00pm - Dr. Julia Clarke “A Dinosaur’s Roar” at Riverview Room   
11:45 am-12:45 pm - Age 3-6 Workshop “Small but Mighty: Microverts” at CL 2     
11:45 am-12:45 pm - Age 7-11 Workshop “Small but Mighty: Microverts” at CL 3     
12:00pm-1:00pm - Lecture Lunch at Mahlburg Auditorium     
1:00pm-1:30 pm - Burpee Rocks Reading at WtW     
1:15pm-2:15 pm - Age 3-6 Workshop “Small but Mighty: Microverts” at CL 2     
1:15pm-2:15 pm - Age 7-11 Workshop “Small but Mighty: Microverts” at CL 3     
1:30pm-2:00pm - Lecture 5 at Riverview Room   
2:00pm-2:30 pm - Dr. Andy Heckert, Appalachia State University “Tiny Triassic fossils that address big evolutionary topics: Microvertebrates from the Lower Triassic of South Africa” at Riverview Room   
2:30pm-3:00 pm - Lecture Break at Main Museum     
2:30pm-3:30 pm - AoE- Cryolophosaurus- How We Fill In the Blanks at Mahlburg Auditorium     
3:00pm-3:30 pm - Maria Vallejo-Pareja, PhD Candidate, University of Florida “Frogs in time: new perspectives on the evolution of anurans in North America” at Riverview Room   
4:00pm-4:30 pm - Dr. Matthew Carranno, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History at Riverview Room   
3:45pm-4:45 pm - Family Lecture at Mahlburg Auditorium   
5:00 pm - Museum Closes at Main Museum

Evening, at Riverview Inn and Suites
5:00 pm - Mixer Begins        
6:30 pm - Dinner Served         
7:30 pm - Dr. Nathan Smith, Natural History Museum of LA County will be the keynote speaker. “Early Dinosaur Evolution: from the Paleo-Equator to the Pole”

Sunday, March 3, 2024
9:00 am - Doors Open at Main Museum     
9:45 am - Opening Remarks at Riverview Room     
10:00am-10:30 am - Dr. Anthony Fiorillo, New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science “The Dinosaurian World of Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska: a fossil resource of global importance” at Riverview Room   
10:00am- 11:00 am  - AoE- Little Red Dinosaurs- Science and Art in Countershading at Mahlburg Auditorium     
10:30am-11:00am - Katherine Jordan, University of Nebraska
“Climate change effects on reptiles over time, science through stories, and why everyone should learn about fossils” at Riverview Room   
11:00am-11:30 am - Lecture Break at Main Museum     
11:30 am-12:00 pm - Dr. Paige Wilson Deibel, University of Washington “Plants that Outlived Dinosaurs: Impact of the Cretaceous-Paleogene Mass Extinction on Plant Communities” at Riverview Room   
11:45 am-12:45 pm - Ages 3-6 Workshop- Bones to Stones: The Science of Fossilization at CL 2     
11:45 am-12:45 pm - Age 7-11 Workshop- Bones to Stones: The Science of Fossilization at CL 3     
12:00pm-12:30 pm - Katie Tremaine, Montana State University at Riverview Room   
12:30pm-2:00 pm - Lecture Lunch at Mahlburg Auditorium     
1:15pm-2:15 pm - Ages 3-6 Workshop- Bones to Stones: The Science of Fossilization at CL 2     
1:15pm-2:15 pm - Age 7-11 Workshop- Bones to Stones: The Science of Fossilization at CL 3     
2:00pm-2:30 pm - Dalton Meyer, PhD Candidate, Yale University “The Not-So-Terrible Lizards: Using Jurassic Fossils to Explore the Origins and Evolutions of Modern Squamates” at Riverview Room   
2:30pm-3:00 pm - Kathleen Rust, PhD Candidate, University of Kansas “Reading the Fossil Record: how fossils from China reveal the origin and evolutionary history of the last nonhuman primate in North America before the arrival of humans” at Riverview Room   
2:30pm-3:30 pm - AoE- Little Red Dinosaurs- Science and Art in Countershading at Mahlburg Auditorium     
3:00pm-3:30 pm - Lecture Break at Main Museum     
3:30pm-4:00 pm - Lecture 15 at Riverview Room   
3:45pm-4:45 pm - Family Talk at Mahlburg Auditorium   
4:00pm-4:30 pm - Dr. Thomas Holtz, University of Maryland “From Tots to Titans: How Dinosaur Ontogeny Affects Ecosystem Structure and Diversity, and Why Dinosaurs Are Not Mammal-Analogues” at Riverview Room   
5:00 pm - Museum Closes at Main Museum

Date: March 2-3, 2024

Location: Various Venue In Rockford, IL 61103

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