Our program this month will be presented by Professor Emerita Danita Brandt. The title of her program is: The Importance of the Imperfect.
In summary,we all want to find the perfect trilobite, the complete crinoid that would garner ooohs and aaahs in the fossil hall at the Cincinnati Museum Center, but there are important stories about how these animals lived that we can only know from “trilo-bits” and “bric-a-brach(s)” and other incomplete or blemished specimens. With examples from research on our familiar Cincinnatian invertebrates (and a dinosaur or two, just because) I hope to leave you with a reason to pick up those imperfect fossils, document the information they hold, and contemplate the stories they tell.
Danita Brandt was Dr. David Meyer’s second graduate student at UC, where she earned her master’s degree, in 1980. After a detour to Yale University for a Ph.D. and her first academic job at Eastern Michigan University, Danita returned to UC for a year as NSF Visiting Professor, in 1990. Upon her return to Michigan, she joined the faculty of Michigan State University where she worked to secure her department’s significant fossil collections by transferring them to the Cincinnati Museum Center, which meant more trips back to Cincinnati. As an emerita faculty member, Danita continues to find reasons to come back to the area. Consorting with the Dry Dredgers is near the top of that list.
TIME: 8 pm
DATE: Friday, April 24,
2026
PLACE: Room 201, Braunstein Hall, UC Main Campus,
Clifton
SIMULCAST: via Zoom
- Link included in the paid members PDF version of The Bulletin
Dry Dredgers Anniversary. This meeting marks the 84th anniversary meeting of the founding of the Dry Dredgers. We have come a very long way since 1942. The early group was small. Initially, and even through the 1960s and beyond, programs ranged on broad topics in areas we no longer cover such as archaeology and my all-time favorite: Recombinant DNA! Since I’ve been president, I’ve tried to keep topics strictly in the realm of paleontology or closely related fields.
Location Change The April Meeting will be held at the University of Cincinnati, 201 Braunstein Hall.
Beginner's Class
by Greg Courtney
The Beginners Class will be conducted from 7:15 PM to 8:00 PM on April 24th. It will be held before the general meeting in Room 300, Braunsiein Hall, one floor up from our regular meeting room. Greg will be presenting a slide show on fossil hunting methods and tools including an introduction to Ordovician sea life. It will be in-person only. No remote Zoom.
The April Field Trip is for dues-paying members only. It is to a quarry that will only allow 20 people. Information about this field trip can be found in the full-color PDF file version of the Bulletin that goes out to dues-paying members.
If you would like to become a dues-paying member of the Dry Dredgers, here's how: http://www.drydredgers.org/register.htm
More interesting and informative articles, along with color illustrations is available in the full E-Bulletin that was emailed to dues-paying members.
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