Friday, March 4, 2011

A Great Opportunity: CalPaleo, May 14 at Sierra College

This came across my desk this week. It looks like a great opportunity to learn about California's unique paleo-past!

"Sierra College and Sierra College Natural History Museum are pleased to host the 2011 meeting of CalPaleo on Saturday May 14 – only two and a half months from now. PaleoResource Consultants – a company providing paleontological mitigation services -- is co-sponsoring the meeting.

Don't miss this great opportunity to present your own research and learn about the latest research of others. CalPaleo meetings have typically emphasized the research of students from California colleges and universities, with a sprinkle of research papers by professors and other researchers. The cohesive factor that makes us CalPaleo is that we are California Paleontologists -- either we live here and do research here, we live here and do research elsewhere, or we live elsewhere and do research here. Regardless, we are all California Paleontologists. CalPaleo meetings bring us all together in a way that GSA, BSA, AAPG, AASP, or even SVP meetings cannot.

In this 2nd announcement of the 2011 CalPaleo meeting, we provide an update on the CalPaleo 2011 website, fieldtrip plans, registration fees, local lodging, and the first Call for Papers (both oral and poster). With the next/3rd announcement, we hope that you will be able to download an attractive, colorful Call for Papers to give to all your friends. In the meantime, please forward this simple and rather plain 2nd announcement to everyone that you think needs to know about the 2011 CalPaleo meeting and encourage them to be here. You may even want to offer to let them ride along with you!

You will love the Rocklin area, located in the foothills of the Sierra just 20 minutes east of Sacramento right off I-80. Unlike much of California, we have trees, lakes, and permanent streams! In other words, our environment is much more like the late Tertiary. Plan ahead. You may just want to spend an extra day or two here in the Pliocene!

CalPaleo.org Website – It’s up; it’s working. It’s just still under construction. CalPaleo.org that is. Check it out and give us feedback on what needs to be added to make it more “user friendly”. Thanks to Kristin McCallister who has been doing most of the work. Kristin is a former Sierra College student, a recent graduate from University of Nevada at Reno, and now employed with PaleoResource Consultants in Auburn.

Fieldtrip Plans – On Sunday, following the CalPaleo presentations on Saturday, Dick Hilton will be leading an informal fieldtrip from Sierra College up to Donner Pass. Some of us are calling it – “From the Pliocene, back to the Pleistocene”. During this trip we will examine outcrops that have in the past produced Jurassic invertebrates, Eocene wood and leaves, and Miocene leaves. Plus we will see classic Sierra Nevada geology, Mesozoic low-grade metamorphics, Cretaceous granites with xenoliths, Paleozoic roof pendants, Tertiary auriferous gravels and volcaniclastic sediments, and Quaternary alluvial deposits. Both the Tertiary and Quaternary deposits have produced vertebrates elsewhere, but not so far in the outcrops we plan to examine.

Registration Fees – After considerable gnashing of teeth, the CalPaleo 2011 Organizing Committee has decided that, in order to pay for both a continental breakfast and lunch, we will need to charge a nominal $20.00 registration fee. There will be an extra charge of $25.00 for the Sunday fieldtrip, including lunch, bus transportation, and a copy of the fieldtrip guidebook.

Housing Ideas – In the next/3rd announcement, we will provide a list of motels available near the Sierra College campus. There are both inexpensive and four-star hotels within walking distance of the campus.

Call for Papers -- Abstract deadline is Friday 01 April. April Fool! Actually the deadline is Saturday 02 April. Expect another reminder in late March, but why not put the date on your calendar now? Follow the Boy Scout motto -- “Be Prepared”. Help us capture the diversity of paleontological research underway in California. Remember that not all fossils have bones and teeth! Be present to ensure that your area of expertise is represented -- be it ichnofossils, microfossils, invertebrates, plants, fish, birds, other dinosaurs, or those lovable, warm, fuzzy guys!

Save the Date! -- As we stated in the 1st announcement, what's most important right now is that you Save the Date! Saturday 14 May 2011. We hope to see you at CalPaleo in 2011 at Sierra College in Rocklin.

CalPaleo 2011 Organizing Committee

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