Festival Hours: March 6 & 7, doors open 10:00 am - 5:00pm, freechildren's DinoBlast activities 11:00am - 4:00pm, lectures  begin at 10:30am.

Order Tickets: Call 815-965-3433 or visit www.burpee.org, CLICK HERE to print order form.

FREE Parking: Park at Riverfront Museum Park 711 N. Main Street, indoor tunnel leads to Burpee.

Festival Admission: $6 per person, Burpee Members are FREE! Admission includes children's DinoBlast Passport activities. Coupons and reciprocal memberships are not valid March 6 & 7.

Dinner & Lecture Tickets Include the Museum Mixer $40/non, $30/members
Includes a buffet dinner and seating on the main level of Veterans Memorial Hall for the presentation. Doors open at 5:45, buffet opens at 6:15, lecture begins at 7:00, doors at the Burpee Museum open for the mixer at 8:00pm.

Lecture Tickets $20/non, $15/members

Includes admission to the Hall after 6:45 and seating in the Balcony.

Mixer Tickets $20/non $15/members, Book signing and photo opportunities.

Includes admission to Burpee’s Mahlburg Auditorium 8:00-10:00pm, beverages are provided.

Keynote Address: Dr. Philip Currie, University of Alberta
Komodo dragons, intercontinental theropods and the centenary of Barnum Brown’s discovery of the Albertosaurus bonebed.

2-DAY PASS: $65/non-member, $55/member
Includes admission to all lectures in the Mahlburg Auditorium and the festival activities at Burpee Saturday and Sunday.

1-DAY PASS: $35/non-member, $30/member
Includes admission to all lectures in the Mahlburg Auditorium and the festival activities at Burpee on either Saturday or Sunday.

Individual Tickets: $10/non-member, $9/member
Includes admission to selected lectures ONLY.

Saturday Lectures:
10:30-11:30am Andrew Milner
12:00-1:00pm Steve Brusatte
2:00-3:00pm Eva Koppelhus Ph. D.
3:30-4:30pm Jason Head Ph.D.
Sunday Lectures:
10:30-11:30am Ashley Morhardt
12:00-1:00pm Dan Gebo, Ph.D.
2:00-3:00pm Reed Scherer, Ph.D.
3:30-4:30pm John Catalani

Order Tickets: call 815-965-3433 or visit www.burpee.org, CLICK HERE to print order form.

Workshops- Three fossil-themed workshops will be offered Saturday and Sunday for an adult working with one or more children.

Recomended for children over five. All workshops include an age appropriate PowerPoint presentation, followed by a fun “make and  take” project.

Individual Tickets: $10/non-member, $8/member Includes admission to selected workshop. Note day and workshop time on your order form.

11:00am Saturday or Sunday THE TYRANTS: Raptorex, Alioramus and Others
Meet Jane’s cousins. Get the latest info on these new discoveries and their importance. Learn how they impact our understanding of Tyrannosaurs, including Jane.

12:30pm Saturday or Sunday “SAY CHEESE”
With six inch teeth and questionable lips what would the face of a dinosaur be like? Was the structure similar to crocodiles? Get up close and check out a dino’s smile.

2:00pm Saturday or Sunday SSSSSSSSSS……TWO TON SNAKES
Enter the world after the dinosaur extinction. Discover a snake that was larger than a doorway, and what it can tell us about the climate of the time. Explore modern snakes for clues to this mysterious monster.

New Classes:

Childrens Lecture- Saturday, March 6, 3:30-4:30pm

Tickets: $10/non-member, $8/member

Dr. Mathew Bonnan presents: Walk Like a Dinosaur, for children of all ages. Don’t miss this interactive presentation, space is limited.

Artist Studio- Sunday, March 7 11:00am-12:30pm Tickets: $20/non-member, $15/member

Each participant will receive and complete an art project under instruction. For Jr High and older. Quantities and space are limited.

Order Tickets: call 815-965-3433 or visit www.burpee.org, CLICK HERE to print order form.

Join and Save -Burpee Museum Membership

Saturday

10:30-11:30 AM Andrew Milner, City Paleontologist and Curator, St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm
History, Geology and Paleontology: St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, Utah

12:00-1:00 PM Steve Brusatte, Doctoral Student, American Museum of Natural History/Columbia University
Changing views of Tyrannosaur Evolution: Raptorex, Alioramus, and other new fossils

2:00-3:00 PM Eva Koppelhus, Ph.D, Research Associate at the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Alberta
Palynology and Paleobotany from the Albertosaurus Bonebed, Dry Island Park

3:30-4:30 PM Jason Head, Ph.D., University of Toronto

Narrow Fellows in the Rock: Ecological and Climatic Inferences From the Fossil Record of Snakes

Saturday Night

7:00-8:00 PM Philip Currie, Ph.D., Professor, Canada Research Chair at The University of Alberta in The Department of Biological Sciences.
Komodo dragons, intercontinental theropods, and the centenary of Barnum Brown’s discovery of the Albertosaurus bonebed.

Sunday

10:30-11:30 AM Ashley Morhardt, Biology Lab Coordinator Department of Biological Sciences, Western Illinois University
Did Dinosaurs Flash Crocodile Smiles?

12:00-1:00 PM Dan Gebo, Ph.D. Anthropology Department, Board of Trustee Professorship at Northern Illinois University
Darwin, Fossil Primates, and Primate Evolution.

2:00-3:00 PM Reed Scherer, Ph.D. Presidential Research Professor, Department of Geology, Northern Illinois University
What can a teeny-tiny fossil teach us about a big bad ice sheet? The history and future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

3:30-4:30 PM John Catalani, Retired High School Teacher, noted authority on local Cephalopods and author.

Nautiloids of the Ordovician Sea

Order Tickets: call 815-965-3433 or visit www.burpee.org, CLICK HERE to print order form.

Philip Currie, Ph.D., Professor, Canada Research Chair at The University of Alberta in The Department of Biological Sciences.

Saturday Evening Lecture: 7:00-8:00 PM March 6, 2010
Komodo dragons, intercontinental theropods, and the centenary of
Barnum Brown’s discovery of the Albertosaurus bonebed

Philip J. Currie professor, Canada Research Chair at The University of Alberta in The Department of Biological Sciences, former Curator of Dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and Adjunct Professor University of Calgary. He earned his BSc in Toronto, 1972. His MSc and PhD at McGill in 1975 and 1981. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1999) and a member of the Explorers Club (2001). He received an honorary degree from the University of Calgary in 2008. As a researcher at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (Drumheller), he has published more than 140 scientific articles, 85 popular articles and twelve books, focussing on the growth and variation of extinct reptiles, the anatomy and relationships of carnivorous dinosaurs, and the origin of birds. Fieldwork connected with his research has been concentrated in Alberta, Argentina, British Columbia, China, Mongolia, the Arctic and Antarctica. Sir Frederick Haultain Award (for significant contributions to science in Alberta), 1988. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Michel T. Halbouty Human Needs Award, 1999. The Michael Smith Award in 2004. ASTech Award in 2006. Since 1986, he has supervised or co-supervised 31 MSc and PhD students at the Universities of Alberta, Calgary, Copenhagen and Saskatchewan. Currently he is supervising 12 students (1 undergrad, 6 MSc’s and 5 Phd’s)at the University of Alberta.He has given hundreds of popular and scientific lectures on dinosaurs all over the world, and is often interviewed by the press.

Matthew Bonnan, Ph.D. Western Illinois University

Children's Lecture:"Walk Like a Dinosaur" 3:30-4:30 pm Saturday, March 6

Matthew Bonnan is a Biology Professor at Western Illinois University
and studies the leg structure of the gigantic sauropods to understand
why they became so large and how they moved. As part of a National
Geographic-sponsored research team, he has recently helped to unearth
and describe a new, early relative of the sauropod dinosaurs in South
Africa named [italicize]Aardonyx[italicize] or "Earth Claw." He and his
students currently collaborate with the Burpee Museum of Natural History
on a spectacular Late Jurassic Morrison Formation dig site near
Hanksville, Utah, unearthing sauropod dinosaurs during the heyday of
their largest sizes. Dr. Bonnan's research combines traditional
comparative anatomy with computer-aided modeling of skeletons to better
understand movement in dinosaurs.

Andrew Milner, City Paleontologist and Curator, St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm

Lecture: History, Geology and Paleontology: St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, Utah 10:30-11:30 AM Sturday, March 6

Andrew R. C. Milner – St. George City Paleontologist and Curator. Andrew works with all scientific aspects of the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, dealing with paleontology and geology. Other research interests in Utah include the paleontology of the Triassic Moenkopi and Chinle formations, the Lower Jurassic Moenave, Kayenta, and Navajo formations, and the Upper Cretaceous Iron Springs Formation. Andrew also works on Late Pleistocene Champlain Sea fossils from eastern North America. Past fieldwork experience includes five seasons at the Cambrian Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada working. He lectures, provides higher educational services such as field trips, and has been a member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology since 1988. He helped establish the nation’s first BLM Paleontological Site Stewardship Program in Washington County, Utah, and he continues to work with the BLM and other federal and state organizations in recording and monitoring paleontological localities in the region.

Steve Brusatte, Doctoral Student, American Museum of Natural History/Columbia University

Lecture: Changing views of Tyrannosaur Evolution: Raptorex, Alioramus, and other new fossils. 12:00-1:00 PM Saturday, March 6

Biography: Steve Brusatte is a PhD student at Columbia Museum and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He has degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Bristol, and specializes in the anatomy, genealogy, and evolution of theropod dinosaurs and Triassic reptiles. He was part of the research teams that recently described the exciting new tyrannosaurs Raptorex and Alioramus. Steve was born and raised in central Illinois and works closely with scientists at the Burpee Museum. He has joined the Burpee's fossil excavation in Montana and was part of the team that described Homer the Triceratops.

Eva Koppelhus, Ph.D, Research Associate at the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Alberta

Lecture: Palynology and Paleobotany from the Albertosaurus Bonebed, Dry Island Park

2:00-3:00 PM Saturday, March 6

Eva B. Koppelhus is a Research Associate at the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Alberta, where she works together with Dr. Philip Currie. Before October 2005, she spent eight years as a research assistant for Dr. Currie at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. She did one postdoctoral position at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in 1996 and 1997, following a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Greenland Geological Survey in Copenhagen, Denmark. As a palynologist educated at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, she worked for more than ten years at the Geological Surveys of Denmark and Greenland, her research focused on floras of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous geological periods. During her postdoctoral position at the Tyrrell Museum, she worked with material from the Centrosaurus bonebeds in Dinosaur Provincial Park to determine more about the plants associated with this dinosaur. Her research interest is now concentrating on floras of the Upper Cretaceous of Northwest America. She primarily works with material from dinosaur bearing formations such as the Pachyrhinosaur bonebed in Pipestone Creek and the Albertosaurus bonebed in Dry Island Park. Her work with Dr. Currie has taken her to all corners of the world, including Argentina, Australia, China, Europe, Indonesia, Mongolia, New Zealand, South Korea, and the USA.

Jason Head, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Biology at the University of Toronto, Mississauga

Lecture: Narrow Fellows in the Rock: Ecological and Climatic
Inferences From the Fossil Record of Snakes 3:30-4:30 PM

Jason Head is a vertebrate paleontologist and biologist who studies the evolutionary histories of reptiles, primarily from 66.5 million years ago to the present. He received a B.S. in biology from the University of Michigan in 1995, a Ph.D. in geology from Southern Methodist University in 2002, and has conducted field research in Pakistan, Tanzania, Mali, India, Jordan, and North America. While collecting Miocene reptile fossils in Pakistan, Jason developed an interest in the relationship of reptile diversity and body size to climate change, especially in snakes. His subsequent research includes quantitative analysis of skeletal morphology in modern and fossil lizards and snakes in order to reconstruct historical patterns of genetic control and development of the reptile axial skeleton, as well as continuing studies of paleoecology and paleoclimate, inferred from the fossil record. In 2009, Jason described the World’s largest snake, Titanoboa cerrejonensis, and developed a method for estimating paleotemperature from body size in fossil reptiles. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, a research associate and the Royal Ontario Museum, and an Adjunct Assistant Curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Ashley Morhardt, Biology Lab Coordinator Department of Biological Sciences, Western Illinois University

Lecture: Did Dinosaurs Flash Crocodile Smiles? 10:30-11:30 AM

Sunday, March 7

Ashley Morhardt, M.S. is a biology instructor as Western Illinois University. She completed her Master’s degree in the summer of 2009 from WIU and has since presented her thesis work at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s Annual Meeting in Bristol, UK. Her research focuses on the extra-oral structures of amniotes, most specifically dinosaurs. She has also participated in digs at the Hanksville-Burpee quarry for the past two consecutive years. Ashley intends to pursue a doctoral degree with emphases in paleobiology and comparative anatomy. Growing up in Crystal Lake, IL, Ashley was a frequent visitor to the elementary school principal’s office for her fervent schoolyard digging and relentless efforts to organize dig teams of twenty members or more.

Daniel L. Gebo, Ph.D. Anthropology Department, Board of Trustee Professorship at Northern Illinois University

Lecture: Darwin, Fossil Primates, and Primate Evolution. 12:00-1:00 PM Sunday, March7

Dan Gebo holds a Board of Trustee Professorship at Northern Illinois University currently, as well as Distinguished Teaching and Research Professorships, where he has worked in the Department of Anthropology for 22 years. Dr. Gebo has conducted field research in North, South and Central America, Africa, and Asia. He is currently working in China on the topics of primate and anthropoid origins.

Reed Scherer, Ph.D. Presidential Research Professor, Department of Geology, Northern Illinois University

Lecture: What can a teeny-tiny fossil teach us about a big bad ice sheet?
The history and future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet 2:00-3:00 PM Sunday, March 7

John Catalani, Retired High School Teacher, noted authority on local Cephalopods, author of column “An Amateur’s Perspective” in American Paleontologist, 1995-present.

John Catalani, Retired High School Teacher, noted authority on local Cephalopods, author of column “An Amateur’s Perspective” in American Paleontologist, 1995-present.

Lecture: Nautiloids of the Ordovician Sea. 3:30-4:30PM Sunday, March 7

John Catalani: After teaching high school science for 32 years, John retired in 2004. He has, since 1995, authored a column titled “An Amateur’s Perspective” in American Paleontologist, the news magazine of the Paleontological Research Institution. John has been interested in the Ordovician of the American mid-west, particularly the nautiloids contained in Platteville Group rocks, for 35 years.

Mark March 5 & 6, 2011 on your calendars and don't miss the next PaleoFest!

Dr Paul Sereno will speak at the dinner lecture and his famous "GIANTS" exhibit will open at the Burpee Museum!

$76 a night Special

For PaleoFest Ticket Holders

Click Here for more information