Friday, August 12, 2022
from 12:00 p.m. until 1:00 p.m.

Sherman, Texas -- Come join your friends at The Sherman Museum and Dr. Kim Snipes, a biologist at Austin College and a lifelong paleontological enthusiast, for a lunch-time conversation about the ancient history of life in Grayson County. Lunch N' Learn is held in the Community Room at the Sherman Museum. Bring your own lunch. The Museum Board provides chips, water, and cookies.

During the Mesozoic era, often referred to as the age of dinosaurs, the area that would become the Red River valley was where the North American inland seaway met the base of the mountains of Southern Oklahoma. Grayson County was mostly covered in a shallow sea full of an incredible amount of marine life.

If you live near the Red River, you may have encountered fossil oysters and clams in your backyard. Where freshwater runoff from the mountains mixed with the salt water of the seaway, hightly productive marshes grew up. In these wetlands, terrestrial animals hunted for food. One species of predators went on to become famous.

The incredibly complete and beautiful fossil ammonite on display at the Smithsonian was discovered near Denison. North Central Texas has long been a hot spot of paleontology.