This morning the interns headed out for a brief time in the field, in an area close to Newberry, FL.  Roger Portell, Invertebrate Paleontology Collections Manager, and Cristina Robins, PCP PIRE Project Assistant, accompanied the interns to Haile Quarry, where they examined sinkhole stratigraphy and looked for fossils among the many spoil piles of Ocala Limestone (Eocene age).  Molds of numerous bivalves and gastropods, echinoid tests, sea fans, and a few fragmentary carapaces of crabs were found.  One stop at the infill of a former sinkhole yielded several bone fragments – portions of a tortoise and a horse tibia (likely Pleistocene).  Luckily the heat was not too oppressive.  This afternoon the interns headed off to view the exhibits at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Powell Hall, including displays of Thomas Farm (a locality in Florida of similar age to many Panamanian localities) and a special Panama exhibit from the Panama Canal Centennial celebration.

Intern Lillian Pearson (left) and Invertebrate Paleontology Collections Manager Roger Portell
Intern Lillian Pearson (left) and Invertebrate Paleontology Collections Manager Roger Portell look for fossils in Haile Quarry, Newberry, FL. Photo by Daniel Mercado.