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Locals may have fossils identified this week at Heritage Museum event |
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Sunday, 22 March 2009 |
 Submitted photo/SDN George E. Phillips, curator of paleontology at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, stands next to a prehistoric marker at a fossil collecting site near Baldwyn. Phillips will be identifying fossils this Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum. By KELLY DANIELS
Starkville Daily News
Local residents can have their fossils identified this Saturday by a professional paleontologist visiting Starkville.
As part of the Fossil Roadshow, George E. Phillips, curator of paleontology at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science since 2003, will be surveying and inspecting fossils at the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Saturday’s free-admission event is made possible by Marion Honsinger, Heritage Museum friends volunteer and tour coordinator, and an old friend of Phillips’ mother.
Honsinger says Phillips grew up farming and did not like it.
“He was self taught in a lot of the facets of paleontology,” she said.
Phillips worked at the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine and took one course a semester. Eventually, he began working there full time and taking a full time load of classes.
“Even when he wasn’t in school, he was doing research along the lines of paleontology,” Honsinger said. “He’s a hard worker, always going over and above.”
Graduating summa cum laude, Phillips earned a double major degree in geology and biology. He later went on to earn a masters in geology from North Carolina State University, all the while working and researching at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science.
Phillips’ wife, Nicole Smith, will lead a children-friendly program called Fossils Rock! lasting from 30 to 45 minutes.
Also employed at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, Smith works in environmental education after having received a degree in anthropology and geology at Auburn University.
The Hertiage Museum is located on 206 Fellowship Street. For more information, call 323-0211.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 23 March 2009 )
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