Invitation to Celebrate the 5th Annual National Fossil Day

Join us in celebrating the 5th Annual National Fossil Day on Wednesday, October 15, 2014. Organized by the National Park Service as part of AGI’s Earth Science Week, this day promotes public awareness and stewardship of fossils. The goal is to inspire the next generation of paleontologists and fossil enthusiasts.

On National Fossil Day, scientists and park rangers will share fossil discoveries at special events nationwide and explain the importance of preserving fossils for future generations.

AGI will participate in events to be held at The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The program, free and open to the public, will begin with opening remarks from museum and National Park Service officials. This will be followed by a gathering of grade-school children who will recite the Junior Paleontologist Pledge" on the mall steps of the museum.

Events at the museum will include a “Wheel of Fossilization” game hosted by AGI – find your organism’s fossilization fate! In addition to the Smithsonian Institution and AGI, partners supporting this National Fossil Day event include the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, National Science Foundation, National Geographic, Maryland Dinosaur Park, U.S. Forest Service, Calvert Marine Museum, Dinosaur Valley State Park, Chesapeake Children’s Museum, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Several of these partners will have additional fossil-related activities on-site at the museum.

To learn more about National Fossil Day, please visit http://nature.nps.gov/geology/nationalfossilday/.

Reaching over 50 million people annually, Earth Science Week has been led by AGI in cooperation with its sponsors and the geoscience community since 1998. Earth Science Week 2014 will be celebrated October 12-18. To learn more, please visit http://www.earthsciweek.org/. To order your Toolkits, please visit http://www.earthsciweek.org/materials/index.html. You may also call AGI Publications to place an order.