The Divison of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Florida Museum has moved our daily operations into the live lab of the current Science up Close: Fantastic Fossils exhibit. We are seeking volunteers who are able to commit at least 3 hours per session and around 30 hours of work total. The exhibit will close on January 1st, 2023, but if interested, the opportunities will continue back in our lab at Dickinson Hall. Most help is needed on the weekends but every day is available. The museum is open from 10 am – 5 pm Mondays thru Saturdays and 1 pm – 5 pm on Sundays. Duties may include: -Preparing fossils: excavating fossils from plaster jackets, cleaning, rebuilding -Use a digital microscope to sort through microvertebrate fossils -Paint and number fossils to catalog into the collection -Talk with interested museum visitors -Paleo art live demonstration -Ideas that you come up with to engage museum visitors in the space Most of the fossils that you would be working on are from the local Montbrook Fossil Dig in Williston, Florida. https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/montbrook/ We have been digging at the site since 2015 with the help of over 800 volunteers and have uncovered over 120 species. The site is an ancient river system that emptied into the Gulf of Mexico around 5 million years ago when the coast was much more inland than it is today.

Rachel Narducci, rnarducci@flmnh.ufl.edu