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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Delle Willett, Dir. of Marketing 619.255.0244
dwillett@sdnhm.org

New Exhibition at the San Diego Natural History Museum Involves Visitors in Fossil Hunting

San Diego, CA--December 15, 2003: The San Diego Natural History Museum announces the opening of FOSSIL HUNTERS SAN DIEGO on March 20, 2004. This new exhibition will show visitors how the Museum's paleontologists hunt for local fossils- what they look for, the tools they use, how they excavate and transport the fossils, and how they prepare and study them. The reward of the hunt is discovering what the fossils reveal about San Diego's fascinating past.

FOSSIL HUNTERS SAN DIEGO makes it possible for visitors to meet the changing cast of characters that lived right here in San Diego County over millions of years-dinosaurs, rhinoceros, primates, sea cows, walrus, whales, mammoths, mastodons and more.

The staff of the Museum's Department of Paleontological Services hunts for the majority of fossils found by the Museum, literally running behind huge bulldozers as they scrape the land in preparation for building and development. This is the only San Diego-based consulting group specializing in the collection, salvage, preparation, and curation of paleontological resources (fossils) from development-slated acreage. Services also include paleontological resource assessment of property (residential, commercial, municipal), relevant to environmental impact studies.

The Paleontology staff has provided consulting services since 1981 for many San Diego County residential developers; on Caltrans roadway construction projects, and City of San Diego pipeline replacement and construction projects.

Thousands of significant fossils have been salvaged from construction sites in San Diego, Orange, and Imperial counties. These fossils are now permanently housed at the San Diego Natural History Museum where many are, or have been, on public exhibit. Researchers from around the world have studied many of the salvaged fossils and numerous scientific papers have been published on these specimens.

Address: 1788 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, California. Hours: Daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is all-inclusive: $9 adults, $6 seniors, active military/spouses, and college students, $5 children 3 - 17 yrs. old. Free on the first Tuesday of each month. Website: www.sdnhm.org.

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