MARION, OH (MARION COUNTY NOW)—The Marion County Park District will host the 10th Annual Paleontology in the Park from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, September 19, at the Tallgrass Trail Nature Center, 2093 Holland Road West. The free program is designed for children and adults of all ages.
Visitors can meet paleontologist and curator Dale Gnidovic of OSU’s Orton Geological Museum, along with geologists from the Ohio Geological Survey. Attendees will also have an opportunity to see the site where mammoth bones were discovered 50 years ago and meet a former Ohio State Marion student who helped with the excavation.
Participants can explore 4.5 billion years of Earth’s history along the Path to the Past and learn where fossils can be found in Ohio. Activities include dinosaur games and crafts, a prehistoric photo opportunity and the popular Dino Dig, where youngsters can take home a small toy dinosaur.
Complete six of 13 activities and receive a free approximately 450-million-year-old Ordovician fossil.
The event will also explore questions about prehistoric Ohio, including what lived alongside mammoths, the Devonian Sea that covered Marion about 380 million years ago, dinosaur accuracy in Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, and whether dinosaurs ever lived in Ohio.