GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING

Date: February 3, 2025
Social Time: 7:00 pm
Meeting Time: 7:30 pm
Location: In-Person at GMS and Virtual via Zoom (link is on the GMS calendar here)
Speaker: Ryan Roney, Curator, Tellus Science Museum
Topic: Building a Dinosaur

In August, 2022, Tellus Science Museum installed a life size skeleton cast of the Lane specimen of Triceratops horridus. Just the skull cast of this species had been on exhibit since 2014 in the Fossil Galley with its counterpart from Laramidia - Tyrannosaurus rex. With the generous donation of Michael Mayo Macke (a third generation donor to Tellus) Tellus Science Museum was able to purchase the post cranial skeleton of this adult specimen along with a full skeletal reconstruction of a juvenile of the same species. Constructed over many months, these specimen casts arrived in two large shipping crates. Installation occurred over two days with two staff members from Triebold Paleontology, Inc., the makers of this specimen, and an extensive compliment of Tellus staff from the curatorial and other departments. Curator, Ryan Roney, will talk about these events and showcase the particular challenges encountered with this installation in his presentation titled: “Building a Dinosaur”. Additionally, Ryan will discuss the upcoming installation of the large extinct alligatoroid, Deinosuchus schwimmeri, that will be added to the display of Cretaceous Appalachia.

As curator at Tellus Science Museum, Ryan Roney cares for the rock, mineral, meteorite, and fossil collections. His main efforts at Tellus seek to build the representation of Georgia’s earth history in the museum’s collections. He completed his Master’s in Geology at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he focused on echinoid paleobiology and paleobiogeography. Ryan also has Bachelor’s degrees in Geology and Spanish from Georgia Southwestern State University and the University of West Georgia. Ryan has done paleontological fieldwork in Chile, Argentina, and throughout the Southeastern US and mineralogical research on vapor phase minerals from Topaz Mountain in Juab County, Utah. His current research includes South American echinoids, spatangoid echinoid evolution, Georgia’s fossil hyoliths, and characterizing the geochemistry of the calc-silicate mineral suite at Red Oak Quarry in Atlanta, Georgia. Ryan is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, conversant in German, and annoys his wife with mispronounced attempts to learn French, of which he can only read the scientific literature on echinoids. For fun, Ryan plays board games, builds with LEGO bricks, gardens, and hikes - all things he enjoys with his three children.

Jane Stone
Vice President of Programs

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General meetings are usually on the first Monday of the month. If this date falls on a holiday, the general meeting will be on the SECOND Monday of the month. In September, the annual picnic and auction replaces the general meeting and is held on a Saturday.