Pleistocene Mammals  in Anchorage, Alaska!

Workshop on March 24, 2010.   

The workshop will focus on the osteology of common extinct Pleistocene mammals from Alaska, including but not limited to mammoth (Mammuthus sp.), the extinct musk oxen (Bootherium), extinct bison (Bison priscus), and horse (Equus lambei). In addition to covering basic identification, the class will also review ageing and sexing of these extinct taxa.  The workshop will include both lecture and lab, with an emphasis on the hands-on lab.  

Greg McDonald (Ph.D. University of Toronto)  is the Senior Curator of Natural History in the National Park Service's Park Museum Management Program.  He started with the park service as the paleontologist at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in Idaho and has also served as the paleontology program manager in the Geologic Resource Division.  In addition to working for the park service, he was the curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and the vertebrate paleontology collection manager at the Idaho Museum of Natural History.  His research interests are the Pleistocene mammals of North and South America particularly the extinct giant ground sloths and their relatives.  He has conducted fieldwork in North and South America and the Caribbean, including working in caves and diving.

Please go to the registration  link to register before March 10th, 2010. Registration before or on March 10 will be $40 for regular fees, and $15 for students. The costs cover materials for the lab and travel and honorarium for the instructor. After March 10th, the registration will be $45 and $20 to cover costs for additional materials for unexpected participants. Please register early so we know how many people to expect.

The 10th Annual ACZ Workshop was  held Wednesday, March 11, 2009 , in Juneau , Alaska , the day before the Alaska Anthropological Association meetings.   Susan Crockford from Pacific Identifications, Inc. was our guest instructor.  She presented information on Sexing and Aging of mammals found along the coast of  the Northwest Coast.

In addition to the workshop were invited to the museum the next day by Ellen Carrlee, a conservator for the Alaska State Museum for a discusion about the Identification of Mammal Hair.  She is working on a database that she intends to make available on line with photographs of comparative samples of hair from common Alaska species.


Some pictures from the 2009 Workshop:

                            
                                                                                   

The 2008 Workshop was held in Anchorage when Joan Dale and Monica Shah presented information about distinguishing ivory, bone, and antler.

               
 

These pictures are from the 2007 workshop in Fairbanks. Lee Post was our guest instructor and showed the participants how to make laboratory specimens. Everybody worked on a beaver because there wasn't enough time for each person to assemble a skeleton on their own.

                 

Our 2006 Workshop was in Kodiak with Pat Shipman as our Guest Lecturer speaking about taphonomy:

      And Lee Lyman joined us in 2005 to talk about Quantification in Whitehorse: