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Edmontosaurus nestling

Edmontosaurus nestling. Photo courtesy of Mark Goodwin

Senior Museum Scientist Erica Clites reports we reached an important milestone in our EPICC project by cataloging over 36,000 new specimens of Cenozoic marine invertebrates from the eastern Pacific! All specimen records are live in the UCMP database (ucmpdb.berkeley.edu) as well as at data aggregators like iDigBio (https://www.idigbio.org/portal/search). In March, the first Virtual Field Experience module was launched transporting teachers, students and anyone interested to the Kettleman Hills of Central California to explore the fossils, sedimentology and geology found there (https://epiccvfe.berkeley.edu/kettleman-hills). Several EPICC student employees are graduating this year and headed off to other adventures. EPICC project assistant, Lillian Pearson, has left UCMP to start graduate school at the University of Southern Mississippi this fall. The expertise and contributions of these student researchers to the project will be sorely missed, but we wish them well in their future endeavors!

Mark Goodwin co-authored a paper with Royal Ontario Museum colleague David Evans and his graduate student Mateusz Wosik on a nestling-sized skeleton of the duck-billed dinosaur, Edmontosaurus, which made the cover of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The skeleton represents the earliest ontogenetic stage of this hadrosaur skeleton and was discovered by Harley Garbani, a long-time field associate and friend of the UCMP. Harley sadly passed away in 2011 but his contributions to vertebrate paleontology and our collections from many summers of working with Bill Clemens and crews in Montana continue to impress and make a difference.

In February 2018, UCMP received the 2017 Excellence in Laboratory Safety Award for the large field sciences category given by the UC Berkeley campus' Department of Environmental, Health, and Safety. UCMP lab managers Diane Erwin and Cristina Robins were honored to accept the award from Vice Chancellor of Research Randy Katz.

EPICC goodbyes

UCMP Prep Lab CBS

Top: From Left to right: Kathy Zoefeld, Ken Gourley, Lillian Pearson, Katie Berlin, Don Pecko, Paula Gomez and Erica Clites at Pt. Richmond, photo credit Helina Chin. Bottom: Cristina Robins and Diane Erwin accepting the 2017 Lab Safety award from VCR Randy Katz, photo courtesy of Diane Erwin.