I really enjoyed Dale Gnidovec’s talk on fossils. Paleontology is something that I do not really know a lot about, so I appreciated that he was so passionate and excited to talk to us about fossils and minerals. I liked how he related all the fossils he saw in the London and Paris Museums back to Ohio. It makes me excited to go and visit those museums when I am abroad in March. His talked lined up nicely with the later chapters in the book related to geology and paleontology. Sometimes reading about rocks and fossils is not very interesting. Having a lecture on it from Gnidovec expanded upon several ideas in the book. One thing from his lecture that was interesting was the state of Ohio was world famous for specific fossils like the Mastadon. I also found it interesting that the Cryolophosaurus skeleton at the front of the building was found in Antarctica, and the original bones are now housed at the Chicago Field Museum.
I am also pleasantly surprised how the talks and the books are lining up, at least for now. I guess that is a bit of a product of the sheer number of stories in Bryson’s book, but still.