The speaker was Tiffany Adrain, Curator of Paleontology Repository, University of Iowa who gave a presentation on "160 Years of Collecting Crinoids at the University of Iowa Repository."
Visiting Rotarians and Guests
Nick Rozek and Kathleen Brown-- Guests of Amanda McFadden
Bruce Teague-- IC Noon Rotary
Tiffany Adrain-- Speaker
Announcements
The Polio Awareness Social for all the Rotary Clubs in the Iowa City area will be held October 24 at 6 pm at the Midwestone building at 500 S Clinton St. on the penthouse floor (6th). Ann Romanowski is in charge. Bring a bottle of wine to share and at least $25 good will donation for Polio Plus. There will also be a bike ride to benefit Polio Plus in November. Dick will have more details later.
Casey Cook is chairing an ad hoc committee for grant selection. The group includes besides Casey, Frank Juvan, Amy Nicholson, Kate Soijka, Phil Peterson and anyone else interested in serving. There is also a guidelines committee being set up to discuss the parameters for selecting projects to fund. This committee includes Casey Cook, Nancy Pacha, Deb Dunkhase, Phil Peterson, Jim Peterson, Hazel Seaba and Pam Ehly.
Karin Franklin announced that the District funds for the Bike Trailer project with Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County has been received.
Jack Cameron announced that anyone wanting to participate in buddying up with a student from Denmark visiting Kirkwood this week should meet up at the Farmers' Market downtown on Saturday between 9 and 11 am. Talk with Jack for more details.
Jim Peterson announced that the applications for Xicotepec participants for 2019 is now online.
Many happy bucks were shared, but one sad one came from Deb Pullen Van Aucken who was attending her last meeting as an AM Rotarian. She will be transferring to a club in Waterloo soon. Best wishes, Deb!
Speaker
Tiffany Adrain, University of Iowa Curator of Paleontology, is originally from Plymouth, England. She and her husband were attracted to Iowa by jobs at UI. She is now working with an even larger collection of crinoids that she cared for previously in London.
The name "crinoids" comes from the Greek "krinon" meaning "lily" and "eidos" meaning "form." Originally Iowa was covered by an inland sea producing over millions of years fossils of forms such as sea urchins, star fish, sand dollars and other crinoids. They are found all over Iowa whenever deposits are found at bedrock. The Devonian Fossil Gorge at the Coralville Reservoir is just one example of a spot where these fossils are found.
Adrain shared the history of the UI crinoid collection and of fossil hunting in Iowa in general. The first Iowa fossil was found in 1804 by the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the earliest collection building took place in 1855 and was greatly expanded between 1873 and 1904 by State Geologist, Samuel Calvin. The crinoid capital of the world is considered to be Burlington, IA, where two collectors named Wachsmutt and Springer lived. Springer and Wachsmutt were consulted by paleontologists around the world in the early 1900s.
Louis Agassiz was another early geologist who prepared a lecture in 1866 called the "Coral Reefs of Iowa City." This is where the name Coralville comes from.
The purpose of the collection is to support the research and teaching efforts in the natural sciences at the University.