Calvert Marine Museum Fossil Club

01/24/2026

The Fossil Club meeting scheduled for this Sunday has been canceled due to the winter storm. ❄️ 🥶

The next fossil club meeting will not be until April.

As s reminder, all of the Fossil Club meetings start early with a show and tell so feel free to bring in any interesting fossils to show and share or to be identified.

Admission at the Calvert Marine Museum for just attending the Fossil Club meeting (and the usual guest lecture following the meeting) is free and open to the public BUT if you do plan to roam the museum you will have to pay admission.

08/15/2023

More cool fossils from Calvert Cliffs! Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, no. 107: The Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology of Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, USA – Volume 2: Turtles and Toothed Whales, edited by Calvert Marine Museum’s paleontologist and NMNH research associate Stephen Godfrey. This work comprises two parts, one on turtles by Robert Weems, another on toothed whales by Godfrey and Olivier Lambert. It follows a previous work on the Calvert Cliffs fossils edited by Godfrey and published by SISP in 2018.https://s.si.edu/3KwFmEE

08/09/2023

On Saturday night, Calvert County Marine Museum volunteer Emily Bzdyk was collecting fossils at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland when she made a discovery that could help write history books on marine life from long ago: In the beach, the water and surf uncovered a 15-million-year-old dolphin skull.

08/07/2023

Had a nautical adventure today helping Calvert Marine Museum paleontology volunteers and staff recover this Cetacean skull. She got a safe ride home with us and will ultimately become part of the collection at the museum used for study to help add to our fossil record. You can stop by the museum in the next few weeks and will likely see staff and volunteers in the prep lab preparing this skull.

Never a dull day on the Chesapeake!

04/23/2023

Reminder:

Fossil Club meeting tomorrow, Sunday April 23rd; show and tell starting at 12:30ish, meeting at 1:30 and public lecture at 2:30.

03/31/2023

The branch of paleontology that studies the processes whereby an organism becomes a fossil is known as taphonomy. This photo taken on a beach along Calvert Cliffs shows most of the carcass of a crow that is in an advanced state of decomposition. What is left consists mostly of its feathers and bones, the two parts of its body that are the most resistant to decomposition. Although it is possible that these remains will become fossilized, it is unlikely because waves will likely pound them to bits. Because they are not already entombed in sediment, they will likely eventually be degraded and recycled into the ecosystem.

📸 S. Godfrey

02/10/2023

💩 day is almost here!

Last year's inaugural celebration of Universal Coprolite Day was so much fun, we are bringing it back for a whole day!

Join us for the second annual celebration of fossilized p**p, otherwise known as coprolites. Stations featuring fossilized f***s and the stories they tell will be dispersed throughout our galleries. This year we will also feature coprolites in the making…modern f***s, some with a twist.

Universal Coprolite Day = The flatulent-free family-friendly festival featuring fanatics of fossilized f***s.

***sFriday

01/21/2023

It's ! This photo summarizes the whole process of recovering the 12 million-year-old baleen whale skull that was found along Calvert Cliffs in October of 2022. The fossilized skull was wrapped in a fabric jacket through which twinned 2 x 4’s were threaded to ease lifting this 650-pound skull into Walt John’s Takacat pontoon boat to begin its trip to the Calvert Marine Museum.

📸From left to right: Chris Storck, John Nance, Walt Johns, Bill Prochownik, Stephen Godfrey, Stephen Groff, David Hoppe, and Victor Perez.

Photo by Cody Goddard.

01/18/2023

01/06/2023

12/23/2022

🚨 Sharks! Sink your teeth in! mezzanine exhibit will be coming down December 31! 🚨

Make plans to see it in person one more time before it closes.