Searching for fossils

Searching for fossils

Bearrett Eliss-Odell, age five, examined a fossil dug out of a box of samples provided by North Carolina’s Aurora Fossil Museum during a paleontology event at the David M. Hunt Library Thursday, July 10.

Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan

A group of youngsters discovered their inner paleontologist at the David M. Hunt Library Thursday, July 10.

The children were digging and sifting through boxes of samples from the Aurora Fossil Museum in North Carolina.

The library’s Brittany Spear-Baron explained that she found the Aurora connection in a previous teaching job.

The museum has a large shale deposit and within it there are fossils galore — shells coral, and occasionally something dramatic, like a shark tooth.

“If someone finds a shark tooth they get to take it home,” she said.

The children dug right in. Bearrett Eliss-Odell, age five, found a piece of coral almost immediately. Pausing briefly to check with Spear-Baron for the ID, she set her treasure aside and resumed the hunt, tongue sticking out as she concentrated.

Spear-Baron said in the children’s non-fiction sections, books on dinosaurs are very popular.

“So many kids love dinosaurs. It’s a subject that captures the imagination,” Spear-Baron said.

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