Non-profit citizen science organization Paleo Quest is very excited to partner with SciStarter at the USA Science and Engineering Festival (Hall DE, Booth Number 5337). Paleo Quest researcher John Nance will share marine fossils that are up to 25 million years old with attendees. Each fossil that will be on display was collected by the non-profit’s founders Aaron Alford and Jason Osborne while scuba diving in murky swamp rivers with swift currents and black water conditions along the coast of the Chesapeake Bay. Show John how excited you are about science and our prehistoric past by asking as many questions as you can, and you may walk away with your very own fossil to add to your personal collection.
Paleo Quest will also be at the Scientific American booth where attendees can participate in our citizen science program SharkFinder. Use Zeiss microscopes to search for microfossils in 19-million-year-old marine deposits and see if you can discover a first occurrence of a species or even a new species all together. SharkFinder was recognized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy last year as one of the top citizen science programs in the country.
Paleo Quest fulfills its mandate through exploration and scientific collaboration, by discovering and recovering fossil specimens, including underwater (scuba) excavations, advancing the understanding of stratigraphy, and by donating materials of scientific significance to museums and universities. The organization donates fossils and fossil-bearing matrix as educational materials to elementary through college level institutions that go to support their science curriculum. This in turn promotes literacy in the earth and paleontological sciences at all academic levels, and collaborative publications of notable findings for the broader research community at a professional level.