Our Upcoming Speaker
Note: Since October 2022, we have returned to in-person meetings at the Birmingham Zoo using a hybrid Zoom-In Person format with the in-person meeting at the Lodge at the Birmingham Zoo

Title: "The Fauna of the Early Oligocene Section (Vicksburg Group) in Central Mississippi"

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Speaker: George Phillips, PhD, Curator of Paleontology, Mississippi Museum of Natural Science

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Abstract:

My presentation will be an exploration of the various types of Oligocene marine organisms collected in deposits near Brandon, Waynesboro, although mostly Bay Springs, Mississippi, including the material that has been published to date. There will also be mention of the rare recovery of terrestrial mammals that lived along the shoreline of the Vicksburg Sea.

About the Speaker: 

George Phillips has been the Curator at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science for the past 24 years.  The following biographical information is from a feature article about him in the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science Foundation News :

I grew up on a family farm in the Mississippi Black Belt Prairie, which is steeped in history, including ‘fossil history,’ or paleontology. Fossil-bearing sediments dating to the Cretaceous Period (“Dinosaur Age”) and Pleistocene Epoch (“Ice Age”) were exposed within ten minutes of my home in all directions. The first fossils I ever found were in the company of one of my father’s farmhands, who, although not knowing much about their identities, nevertheless knew exactly where to find them. Befriending a local geologist, I soon learned quite a bit about the origins, age, identities, and significance of what I was finding. My hobby of fossil-collecting persisted into early adulthood, but I did not pursue a career in paleontology until I was much older. After trying several unrelated career paths out of high school and into my 20s, I eventually decided to return to school for undergraduate and graduate degrees in biology and geology, pursuing my avocational passion of paleontology as an actual profession.

(https://www.mmnsfoundation.com/news/2019staffspotlightgeorgephillips)

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