Amateur and professional paleontologists from 28 countries will travel to Gainesville this weekend to share and discuss their research.
The 10th North American Paleontological Convention, hosted by the Florida Museum of Natural History, will be held at the Hilton conference center from Friday to Tuesday. So far, 450 attendees have registered, and more are expected as the convention’s opening grows closer.
The convention is the only one on the continent exclusively for paleontologists, said Troy Dexter, a post-doctoral researcher in the Florida Museum’s invertebrate paleontology program.
“Because most of us get our degrees in geology, biology and different kinds of larger groupings, we tend to attend conferences in those larger groups,” Dexter said.
He said the event will be comprised of talks beginning at 8 a.m. followed by a poster session at 4:45 p.m. where 28 presenters will set up booths of research for attendees to browse and discuss. Each day will host a group of presentations.
Students like Sahale Casebolt, one of the UF graduate paleontology students slated to present at the convention, are rushing to finalize their presentations before the event.
“I’m scrambling to finish everything,” she said. “But that’s pretty typical.”
Casebolt’s presentation focuses on paleontology’s effects on modern animal conservation.
Other interested students can pay $400 to register for the entire conference or $125 to register for a single-day pass.
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 2/11/2014 under the headline "Prehistoric convention at UF"]
