Thomas Condon's Fossil Collection

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Thomas Condon's Fossil Collection

Professor Emeritus and Condon Collection Curator Dr. William Orr spoke to GSOC on May 12 about Thomas Condon’s fossils. This collection was assembled for teaching and reference and ranks with the best collections for stratigraphic continuity and taxonomic breadth. Many specialists from around the world come to the University of Oregon to study its fossils.
Photo: Thomas Condon with his pals Dr. Bill Orr (left) and GSOC President Rik Smoody (right).

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Paleontologist to the Rescue!

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Paleontologist to the Rescue!

Synopsis of Friday night lecture on July 8, 2016, with speaker Sheila Alfsen

GSOC Past President Sheila Alfsen described her experiences working as an onsite paleontologist on construction sites for Paleontology Associates, a company run by Oregon paleontologist Dr. William Orr for more than 15 years. Paleontology Associates was created to address the need for preserving important fossil finds on government property when they are threatened by construction projects. 

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Fossil and Erratic Sites Discovered on Our Annual Picnic

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Fossil and Erratic Sites Discovered on Our Annual Picnic
  1. Tualatin Library – Mastodon mounted bones, NARG tusk, Woodburn and other fossils located inside. 
  2. Tualatin River Greenway Path – The ¾ mile newly completed trail exhibits casts of fossils, erratic rocks, and each step represents 25 years of geologic time. 
  3. Heritage Center – Showing 10 and 2.5 ton flood erratics in front. A group of Tualatin’s erratic rocks and other fossils are also displayed inside. The center is open M-F 10-2. 
  4. Mastodon Bronze Sculpture – and small bronze boy outside the SW corner of Cabela’s. 
  5. Cabela’s – Fossil casts are located inside sporting goods store, at the entrance and center back. 
  6. Mastodon discovery site – Located near the southwest edge of the Fred Meyer parking lot in blackberries, next to Nyberg Creek. Discovered in 1962. 
  7. Sweek Pond – Short optional art walk. 
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Synopsis of Dr. John Bershaw's GSOC Friday Night Lecture, April 10, 2015

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Synopsis of Dr. John Bershaw's GSOC Friday Night Lecture, April 10, 2015

Using Fossil Teeth and Paleoclimatology to Bracket Duration of Andean Uplift 

Dr. John Bershaw, PSU Department of Geology, came to the GSOC Friday night lecture in April to discuss his research using fossils to determine information about past climate change. Specifically, Bershaw’s task was to use oxygen isotopes in fossil mammal teeth to bracket the age of formation of the Andean Plateau (Altiplano) in South America. 

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Charter GSOC member Lon Hancock was first to discover vertebrate fossils in the Oregon's Clarno Formation

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Charter GSOC member Lon Hancock was first to discover vertebrate fossils in the Oregon's Clarno Formation

By Viola L. Obserson, GSOC President 1984. Reprinted with permission from Oregon Geology, Oregon Dept. of Geology and Mineral Industries, December 1979.

Paleontologists the world over know of the work of Alonzo Wesley "Lon" Hancock (1884-1961). Professional men from the universities and museums of the world came to his door to study the fossils he found. He considered himself an amateur, attained no college degrees, and published no scientific papers, but the fossils his persistence enabled him to find have been the subjects of numerous papers, master's theses, and doctoral dissertations. And part of the geologic history of ancient Oregon has had to be rewritten because of his discoveries.

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Evolutionary Flight Paths (Dr Orr: "There were many")

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Evolutionary Flight Paths (Dr Orr: "There were many")

Over 100 of us gathered in Cramer Hall 53 – a big upgrade from the smaller classroom – to hear a former aeronautical engineering student now turned paleontologist share the geologic evidence on how the ability to fly has come to evolve.  He described the various modes of flight and the thresholds between what humans might define as “true flight” and all the ways evolution has developed gliding, falling, and powered flight.  The idea of flight is a major part of American culture, along with automobiles.  The idea of flight goes back to ancient times.  How did the wing evolve?  Unlike a simple airfoil, a bird-wing is a complex venetian-blind like structure and with an opening-and-closing folding motion. 

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