I have always thought fossils were fascinating and the amount of information that can be gathered from them. However, I never really understood the process for scientists, such as paleontologists, to confirm characteristics that are not associated with the skeletal structure of the organisms. The talk given by Dale Gnidovec, the curator for Orton Hall, gave me insight on the processes related to finding fossils, skeletons, etc. to understand extinct species.
I found Dale to be very engaged and excited about his work. I could also tell that he wanted to provide a deeper understanding to the past and how the field has progressed as a whole. I thought it was particularly interesting how the idea of a fossil record was theorized, something I had not really given much thought to since middle school when first learning about fossils. One thing that always baffled me was how we know that certain dinosaurs have feathers or other characteristics. After asking Dale, he explained how they can look at the structure of the bones and compare to species today that have similar characteristics. Also, he said sometimes they get lucky and there are feathers in the fossils themselves that get preserved. Finally, I found it interesting when Dale went over his trip with the program in the past and gave some ideas about places to visit.