Regular Monthly Meeting February 14

Moonshine and Murder at Glen Rose

DPS will meet on Wednesday, February 14th, at 7PM Central time, in the Boonesville Auditorium (Room 125) of the Ellison Miles Building (Bldg H) at Brookhaven Campus of Dallas College (3939 Valley View Lane, Farmers Branch).  Tom Vance, retired professor of biology at Navarro College, will speak on “Dinosaur Tracks, Moonshine, and Murder”.  Glen Rose has an interesting history, starting with the abundant dinosaur trackways over 115 million years ago, to the colorful characters who discovered and excavated the tracks.  Some did other things, allegedly.

Tom Vance developed a life-long interest in herpetology and paleontology growing up in Ennis, Texas.  He earned an AS degree from Navarro College in Corsicana, and then a BS in Biology and Earth Science and a MS in Biology with emphasis in zoology from East Texas State College (now Texas A&M at Commerce).  Dr. Joan Echols, who pioneered excavations and studies of the vertebrate fossils of the North Sulphur River, was one of his professors.  Tom had earned 30 hours towards a PhD when he began teaching biology at Navarro College in 1977.  He is a long-time member of the Dallas Paleontological Society and a prolific author of articles in our Occasional Papers series.  He was principal investigator of the excavation of Ellie May, a complete mammoth from Ellis County, and a mosasaur from near Blooming Grove.  The DPS awarded him Honorary Lifetime membership in 2015 and the William Lowe Lifetime Achievement Award in Amateur Paleontology in 2020.  Tom often represents DPS at Waco Mammoth National Monument events, and displays his fossil reconstructions and specimens at FOSSILMANIA.