Our featured program this month is: Lights! Camera! Preservation! Paleontology documentaries seem to be having a bit of a heyday, with 2024-2025 seeing the release of Life on Our Planet (Netflix), Prehistoric Planet (Apple TV), and a new version of Walking With Dinosaurs (BBC). However, few of these series deal extensively with the invertebrate world and even fewer involve people like us, amateur collectors and paleontology enthusiasts. Thus, we are excited to premier a rare documentary that focuses on on both of these subjects: The Amazing World of Fossils: Decoding Early Life.
The film is produced by fossil collector and filmmaker Ronald (Ron) Meyer, who started collecting fossils as a teenager in the 1950s at an Ordovician quarry near Appleton, Wisconsin with his longtime collecting buddy Gerald (Jerry) Gunderson. The two continued collecting in the nearby quarries, but everything changed in 1982 when they found rare soft body fossils in the Brandon Bridge Formation (lower Silurian, Telychian, perhaps roughly equivalent to the Waco Formation of southern Ohio or the Lee Creek Formation of Indiana and Kentucky). Since that time, Jerry and Ron discovered and/or collected scientifically significant fossils at four more locations throughout the country. The latest of these assemblages was found in the Ordovician (Richmondian) of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in a sense coming full circle.
Their important finds have been published in the peer-reviewed literature, with Ron and Jerry as co-authors on several publications. In addition, both collectors have several species named after them.
The Amazing World of Fossils shows their life-long journey and features their Paleozoic invertebrate fossils and localities with exceptional preservation, plus the amazing paleontologists they got to work with along the way. These include several "characters" known to the Dry Dredgers: Dr. Brenda Hunda (Cincinnati Museum Center) and Dr. Nigel Hughes (University of California - Riverside), as well as Dr. James Lamsdell (West Virginia University), who you may recall from our October 2025 lecture on eurypterids.
Sadly, Jerry passed away during COVID. The movie honors him and his contributions.
The film is approximately 103 minutes, and will be followed by a Q&A (via Zoom) with Ron. Be aware that we will attempt to condense our other meeting activities to make room for this extended program.
TIME: 8 pm
DATE: Friday, January 23,
2026
PLACE: Founder’s Room
Geier Collections and
Research Center
760 West 5th Street
SIMULCAST: via Zoom
- Link included in the paid members PDF version of The Bulletin
Meeting Report Attendance at Geier was good at our January meeting with 22 on Zoom and 25 in-person. We had to work through a few technical issues with the change in location. We used a different microphone setup and had a few hiccups that we are now aware of. While we did not have a Beginner’s Class, we will have one going forward as we worked out the logistics of the setup. Cameron Schwalbach treated us like royalty. He had the meeting room all set when we arrived and helped us work through our technical issues. The presentation is viewed on a large screen tv monitor. This system also has sound. Using this sytem prevents us from needing to spend money on a digital projector and large screen.
February Meeting Direction Change - ROAD CLOSURE Access to the Geier Collections and Research Center, 760 West 5th Street via Gest Street was fairly easy in January. That is changing as we have found out that a section of Gest Street will be closed for over 4 years beginning on February 6th because of the new I-75/71 bridge project. Consequently, the directions to the meeting will require alteration. See the new directions later in this bulletin.
As you know we are anxiously awaiting the completion of the new collections facility on Dana Avenue where we will be offered a first class meeting space. While we had been told that would probably be ready in 2027, it now appears that the space will not be ready until 2029.
As a reminder, the collections will not be open to viewing during or after our meetings at Geier.
March Meeting Location Change The Geology Department at U.C. wants us back at U.C. Professor Brett and the Geosciences department head, Aaron Diefendorf and Geosciences business director Stacey Ludwig worked on the parking situation and have secured free parking for Dredgers in the Probasco Street lot at the corner of Clifton and MLK. Details are being worked out but we will be issued parking passes for this lot. This starts with the March meeting.
Weather Contingencies Dangerous and challenging weather conditions can occur at any time during the winter. Such conditions can negatively impact our meetings. If potentially dangerous weather conditions occur that might create safety concerns for travel to our meeting or if the Geier closes, our meeting will revert to 100% Zoom. How will you know if this happens? We will place a notice on Channel 19 stating that the meeting will be via Zoom. In case that does not work, you will need to check our website http://drydredgers.org or our Facebook Group page https://www.facebook.com/groups/drydredgers or our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/drydredgers.org. We will also send out an email notice using bulletin@drydredgers.org. We will have notices on each of these. In any case, if you are concerned about the road conditions, stay home and join the meeting on Zoom.
Beginner's Class
The Beginners Class will be conducted from 7:15 PM to 8:00 PM on February 27th. It will be held before the general meeting in the Lunch Room at Geier (adjacent to the Founder’s Room). This month's class will be presented by Greg Courtney. He 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.
If any member would like to lead a future beginners class contact Greg at youthenrichment@fuse.net .
February Indoor Field Trip – Limper Geology Museum
Our first successful indoor field trip for 2026 will be the Limper Geology Museum in Shideler Hall, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. The tour will begin at 10:00 am. The tour will be guided by museum director Kendall Hauer.
If you are using a GPS system for directions, the official address is: 250 S. Patterson Avenue, Oxford, OH 45056-3656
Parking is immediately across the street from Shideler Hall just south of Cook Field: see map below. You will need to obtain a digital parking pass to use this lot. To get your pass, follow this link: https://miamioh.edu/centers-institutes/campus-services-center/parking-transit/permits/#wysiwygcontent_4
The museum is beautiful and features some of Kyle Hartshorn’s art as well.
More interesting and informative articles, along with color illustrations is available in the full E-Bulletin that was emailed to dues-paying members.
The Dry Dredgers and individual contributors reserve the
rights to all information, images, and content presented here. Permission to
reproduce in any fashion, must be requested in writing to admin@drydredgers.org
.
www.drydredgers.org is designed and maintained by Bill Heimbrock.