These past few days in the prep lab I have been reconstructing the shell of a turtle known as Pleurodira sp. It has been very exciting to see the form of the shell after all the little pieces have been glued back together. I have also been working on my research, sketching the vein characters of my leaves for easy identification. Some of the specimens are so well preserved that it seems as if a modern leaf had been glued to the rock! And the detail of the veins under the microscope leaves me speechless! Every day that passes I become more amazed with my findings.

After a week of knowing my project, the paleobotany department was going to renew the student research exhibit, and I was asked to construct a poster on my research. I only had a few days to put my poster together, so I had to work fast, and last Friday it finally became part of the exhibit. In my poster I briefly explain the depositional history of the formation and describe the different morphotypes that were found in the collection (A digital copy of my poster will soon be available at this site www.flmnh.ufl.edu/research/student_poster.htm).

I am also excited for the upcoming trip to Panama, last Monday we had a meeting about the trip and learned that new fossilized leaves were discovered! I can’t wait to see them and compare them to the leaves form Tennessee.