Our Meetings
Guests are always welcome to the meetings if you would like see what
we're all about. Meetings start at 7:00 pm and usually take place the
first Saturday of the month, unless there is a holiday, then it's on
the second Saturday of the month.
Located at the USF Behavioral Science Room #103.
After the speaker finishes we have a short break. Then we
draw for door prizes and some raffle items as well. We finish with
any final announcements.
Upcoming Meetings and Guest Speakers (2022-2023 season):
NOTE: All meetings are the first Saturday of the month at 7:00 pm
unless otherwise clearly noted.
Sept. 10 - Dr. Richard Hulbert, Collection Manager, Vertebrate Paleontology
Florida Museum of Natural History
Looking Back & Ahead: 40+ Years as a Florida Paleontologist
Dr. Richard Hulbert will retire from his
position as vertebrate paleontology
collections manager at the Florida
Museum of Natural
History (FLMNH)
on September 30,
2022. In this, his
last talk to TBFC as
an employee of the
FLMNH, Dr. Hulbert will reflect on
his 41-year association with the museum and the major paleo
discoveries and technological advances occurring over that period.
He will also look ahead to greatly increased time in his
“retirement” to conduct research on Florida
fossils and discuss his plans for a comprehensive program on the
Pleistocene Mammals of Florida that will include extensive
collaboration with amateur and hobbyist fossil collectors across the state.
Dr. Richard has been a good friend and liaison for the amateur
community in Florida. His trusted relationship with the amateur fossil
hunter has probably done more to advance paleontology in Florida
than any other initiative. We’ll miss Dr. Richard when he’s retired,
but I can only imagine we’ll see him around. There’s lots of
research Dr. Richard has had to put off because of other
projects at the museum. I’m sure it won’t be long before we start
hearing about his future studies on tapir, horses and other Florida
mammals.
Oct. 1 - CANCELED
Nov. 5 - Annual Auction
Dec. 10 - Paleo Talks
Many of you already know about Tech-Talks. If
you don’t, they’re very popular technical
talks covering a wide range of technical conepts and ideas:
From how a technology or
processes work, to how to perform a specific
task, to lessons learned in a project. Most are
short, 10-20 minutes. For us, our December
meeting will feature Paleo Tech Talks. Three
short presentation and Q&A sessions on 3
different topics.
Jan. 7 - David Letasi, There's a Mastodon in my Sink!
Explore the prehistoric world of elephants and their relatives the
mastodon. What is their origin? Discover why so
many of these beasts’ fossil bones are found in our sinkholes,
ponds and river bottoms. How did they live, what
were the predators that hunted them and what was their
relationship to other prehistoric mammals? Did early humans lead
to many of their species extinction? Dave will
examine these strange varieties of elephant families, their
prehistoric habits and range. Can science bring back the
mastodon and their relatives the mammoth?
David Letasi has been interested in fossils and pre-historic
times since he was eight years old and thus has had many
years’ experience searching for fossils all over North
America and Asia. By age twelve, he had discovered three
archeological sites that are recorded in the Michigan State
Archeological Site Survey. In addition to dinosaurs, Letasi
has studied prehistoric man, ancient world history, and
archeology.
After serving in the Navy, he decided to travel around the
United States to collect specimens from well-known fossil
sites in Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Florida, as
well as Canada and several countries in Asia. After he
married his wife, Suzanne, in 1972 she began to travel
with him. In 1976 they moved to Florida where it was possible to
collect saber-tooth cat fossils, his main field of interest.
Dave worked for Great Explorations Museum in St Petersburg and
assumed a number of duties, including designing and curating
exhibits and later worked at the Museum of Science and Industry
(MOSI) in Tampa. While at MOSI, he led cave explorations for
children and adults to the Dames Cave in the Withlacoochee State
Forest, as well as fossil-collecting trips to mining sites in Polk
County. Since retiring from MOSI in 2007, he has been active in
projects with the Historic Hernando Preservation Society.
His lengthy résumé includes being the lead archaeological project
coordinator with the Historic Hernando County Preservation Society,
the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Gulf Archaeology Research
Institute of Gainesville. Some interesting projects he’s
worked on include searching for the eighteenth-century capital of
the Seminole Nation and the exploration of the Bayport Civil War
shipwreck site.
If you have any mammoth or mastodon fossil material, bring it
along to the January meeting. Dave would sure like to see it and
so would the rest of us!
Feb. 4 - To Be Announced
Mar. 4 - To Be Announced
Apr. 1 - To Be Announced
May 6 - To Be Announced
June 3 - End of Season Dinner
View Our Past Virtual Meetings
COVID-19 has forced us to adapt!
Since in-person meetings were not possible during this time, the club
hosted Virtual Live Meetings on our YouTube channel.
Subscribe to the channel to get notifications when we go live!
All our club live streamed or recorded meetings will be saved and can be re-watched anytime! Not all meetings can be recorded for various reasons.
You can view past virtual or recorded meetings in the playlist below: