Notebook

Weird Field Station Weekend

Not every mom likes wants flowers for Mother’s Day. Some moms want something different; they want fun and adventure. Well, at Field Station: Dinosaurs we don’t sell roses – but we do know a thing or two about fun and adventure. So take this simple “true or false” quiz to see if we’re right for the Mom in your life.

1) My mom likes to laugh (T/F)

2) My mom likes to learn new things (T/F)

3) My mom likes music and dancing (T/F)

4) My mom enjoys piano concertos and caviar (T/F)

If you answered “True” to questions 1, 2, or 3, Field Station: Dinosaurs is the place for you this weekend. If you answered “False” to the first three questions but “True” to number 4, may we suggest brunch at the Russian Tea Room.

This weekend we’re asking you to think outside the box (of chocolates), because if your mom loves laughing, and learning, you should bring her to Weird NJ Weekend at Field Station: Dinosaurs. We’re celebrating mom’s special day by exploring the backrooms and catacombs of the New Jersey State Museum looking for strange scientific oddities. We’re going back in time to meet Weird Dinosaurs, a not-to-be-missed presentation by real-life paleontologist Jason Schein. And we’re walking the haunted paths and ghostly remains of old Snake Hill, one of the state’s most famous “weird” landmarks

It’s a weekend you don’t want to miss and the perfect Mother’s Day gift for any mom who isn’t afraid to break the mold and try something new. But please – don’t forget to serve her breakfast in bed first – every mom loves that!

Guy Gsell
Executive Producer
Field Station: Dinosaurs

The Colors of the Field Station

Nobody knows for sure what color the dinosaurs were. They may have been gray like elephants, green like lizards or even red like cardinals. At the Field Station, we encourage children to draw dinosaurs any way they want, and we smile and laugh with them as they invent new species. We don’t even make them color between the lines.
This year, we’ve done a little imagining of our own and just like our young paleo-artists, we’re expanding our color palette. The green leaves are back and the yellow forsythia is in bloom; the violet wild flowers can’t be far behind. The colors of nature provide the perfect backdrop for our dinosaurs; they seem more real tucked into the woods and even bigger than you thought set against the purple rocks of Snake Hill.

Our shows are more colorful too. In Dragons to Dinosaurs, a fiery red and gold Chinese dragon parades through the park. At Alien Rocks, kids are given an astronaut’s view of our colorful world and discover firsthand why Earth is called the “blue planet”.

At What Color is Your Dinosaur? we teach everyone how paleontologists are working to figure out what the dinosaurs looked like. We share their story and along the way we look at orange snakes, bright blue peacocks and pink hippos. Kids help us fill the canvas with color as we imagine a Mesozoic world of psychedelic dinosaurs.

The colors of the Field Station are the colors of the rainbow, the colors of science and the colors of imagination. Grab a paintbrush and come on along.

Guy Gsell
Executive Producer
Field Station: Dinosaurs

Paleontological Advisor: Jason Schein

This week we’ll continue acquainting you with Field Station: Dinosaurs’ principle scientific advisors.

The second paleontological advisor is yours truly, Jason Schein. I was trained primarily in geology, paleontology, and paleoecology at Auburn University, where I participated in numerous research and field projects, including actualistic paleontological studies in San Salvador, Bahamas and of the fossil-rich rocks western Alabama. In addition to being the Assistant Curator of Natural History at the NJSM, I am a Ph. D. student and Adjunct Professor in geology and paleontology at Drexel University. My primary research interests involve the vertebrate faunas and ecosystems of the Late Cretaceous in the Western Interior and east coast regions of North America. Over the years, my field adventures have brought me to Patagonia, Argentina to excavate an enormous sauropod dinosaur, to South Dakota to excavate mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, and most recently, to lead paleontological expeditions in the Bighorn Basin of Montana and Wyoming. I am also the primary educator for the Bureau of Natural History at the NJSM. For a more complete look at my biography, please click here.

While David, Rod, and I are most often identified as paleontologists, we also pride ourselves on being true natural historians. Natural History is, after all, the study of everything in the natural world, and we consider ourselves to be students and lovers of nature. David and I believe that the best scientists are the ones who take the time to observe and study the natural world. Since paleontology is essentially the study of ancient nature, there’s no better way to interpret those ancient ecosystems than by understanding nature as it operates today. As the primary scientific advisors to Field Station: Dinosaurs, we are excited to apply this broad-based approach to the educational mission of the exhibition. Not only do we want to teach people about the amazing ancient reptiles featured at Field Station: Dinosaurs, we also want visitors to learn about all of the other fascinating aspects of the dinosaurs’ lives: their environment, evolution, ecosystems, behaviors, and so much more! Join us at Field Station: Dinosaurs for an amazing adventure- “9 Minutes from Manhattan. 90 Million Years Back in Time.”

Jason P. Schein
Assistant Curator of Natural History, NJSM

Welcome to Dinosaurs blog!

Hello and welcome to the official Field Station: Dinosaurs blog. We plan to bring you a new post about all things dinosaur-related, including new and fascinating discoveries, chronicles of the history of paleontology, interesting stories and anecdotes, personal reflections and adventures, and so much more!

For our first post, however, we thought we should introduce ourselves – to tell you who “we” are. Well, “we” are David Parris, Jason Schein, and Rodrigo Pellegrini; paleontologists in the Bureau of Natural History at the New Jersey State Museum (NJSM), located in Trenton, New Jersey. ”We” are excited to be the primary scientific advisors for Field Station: Dinosaurs. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be introducing ourselves, and after that, we will utilize this space to bring you all kinds of fascinating dinosaur-related news and notes.

We’ll start things off with David Parris – a man almost universally regarded as the patriarch of New Jersey paleontology. Since receiving his academic training at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and Princeton University, David Parris has enjoyed a four decade-long career as a paleontologist, primarily at the NJSM, where he is the Curator of Natural History. The breadth and depth of David’s knowledge of all things in the natural world is truly astounding. He has published well over 100 technical articles on topics as varied as Quaternary mammals of Virginia, paleosalinity of the Hudson River, Pleistocene fossils dredged from the Atlantic Continental Shelf, Pleistocene cave faunas of the New Jersey-Pennsylvania region, Cretaceous ecosystems throughout much of the western United States, and is an internationally recognized leader in the study of Cretaceous mammals and Paleozoic graptolites. In addition, he is a respected researcher in geology, archaeology, zooarchaeology, pathology, and ecology. He has and continues to work with numerous federal and state agencies throughout the country. For a more complete look at David’s accomplishments, please click here.