HSCHS alumni speaks on fossils

Saturday afternoon at the Hot Springs County Museum, the county Historical Society hosted a presentation from Dr. Laura Vietti titled "Wyoming Paleontology: Fossils that inspired a Nation."

A 2002 graduate of Hot Springs County High School, Vietti went on to obtain her Bachelor's of Science in Geology from the University of Wyoming (UW) in 2006, before joining the Peace Corps and working in Honduras for about 18 months.

Upon her return, she worked as the collections manager at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center for a year. She said that time at the center really inspired her love of collections, and familiarized her with the fossils in the Big Horn Basin and the dinosaurs that used to roam the region.

Growing up in Wyoming, Vietti said, really gave her a great advantage with regard to her interests in geology and paleontology, and living in Thermopolis gave her love of rocks and fossils a big boost. She noted her specialty is in forensic paleontology, or what happens to animals after they die.

Turning her focus again toward education, Vietti earned a Doctorate in Paleontology from the University of Minnesota in 2014, and was hired at UW as the museum and collections manager of Departmental Scientific Collections, Geology and Geophysics. Though familiar with the fossils in the Thermopolis area, Vietti said she had to familiarize herself with state geology and paleontology and learn the history of the UW Geology Museum.

"What I've found is it's incredible," Vietti said. "We are in the thick of fossil discovery from day one out west." She added the fossils in Wyoming really have inspired the world, and challenged those attending to go to any natural history focused museum in the United States and find examples that do not contain Wyoming fossils.

Much of the world's dinosaur fossils come from Wyoming, Vietti said, and the state has a very large, global footprint. While fossils can be seen in museums, she said what most people don't see is the hundreds of paleontologists that come to the state every year to dig and add to their collections. In almost every state, she noted, there is a research collection with a Wyoming fossil.

As to why the state is so abundant in fossils, Vietti described it as the perfect storm. The area formed in the right place at the right time, being where a lot of rocks were deposited during the geologic time period where life existed on Earth. There has also been some recent erosion that caused exposition of the fossils, and a dry climate in the state makes them easier to find.

Vietti also noted Wyoming has fossils that represent a large portion of the fossil record. "This is extremely rare," she said, "and very special." Most states have a bit of representation near the beginning or end of the record; there is no continuous record like in Wyoming.

"It's something to be very proud of. It's the reason why we come here. It's the reason why geology field camps go to Wind River Canyon. You can span 2.5 billion in 20 minutes of driving. It's pretty special."

Among the highlights of Wyoming fossils are a stromatolite. Wyoming's sample is two billion years old, Earth is 4.6 billion years old and multi-cellular life didn't evolve until 600 million years ago. What that means is there is 1.5 billion years between the stromatolite and the next big evolutionary step, "and we have that here in the state," Vietti said.

While Wyoming is known quite well for dinosaur fossils, Vietti said less known are the mammals. These mammalian fossils are important in their own right, but also help tell the story of the evolution of life on this planet. Additionally, across the state there are large records of bats, and birds that lived at the time of dinosaurs but managed to survive the large extinction.

Vietti also provided a history of Wyoming fossil discovery, primarily from the 1850's forward, and invited attendees to check out the UW Geology Museum. The museum sees about 18,000 visitors annually. Of those, about 6,000 are students. The museum is free, and tours are free, but people must be part of an academic group. There have been visitors from every state, and over 40 countries through its doors.

"Even though we're small," Vietti said, "we are quite mighty, with a very large footprint."