Series to Look at “Dead Dinosaurs”

Casper College image.

“Dead Dinosaurs in Arctic Alaska” by JP Cavigelli is the next presentation for the Werner Wildlife Study Series on Thursday, March 21 beginning at 7 p.m.

Cavigelli’s presentation will focus on the challenge of collecting dinosaur fossils 30 miles south of the Arctic Ocean, and what those fossils can tell us about ancient Alaska. Cavigelli, museum collections specialist at the Tate Geological Museum, spent part of his summer in 2018 on the North Slope of Alaska. “While Wyoming is well known for its dinosaur fossils, they can be found in many other places around the world. One of the most geographically interesting places to find remains of dinosaurs is the North Slope.”

Cavigelli received his B.A. in biology at the University of Chicago where he became interested in paleontology. In 1983 he fell in love with Wyoming while doing fieldwork in search of small Cretaceous mammal teeth with a University of Wyoming team. He returned to Wyoming in 1990 and was part of a paleontology field crew at UW again. He stayed in Laramie working off and on in paleontology for 14 years and doing fieldwork as well as a two-year post as the collections manager for the University of Wyoming Department of Geology and Geophysics. Cavigelli began working at the Tate in September 2004.

“Dead Dinosaurs in Arctic Alaska” is free and open to the public. The Werner Wildlife Museum is located off the Casper College campus at 405 E. 15th Street. For more information call the museum at 307-235-2108 or email indiahayford@caspercollege.edu.