The May meeting of UFOP’s Great Basin Chapter will be Thursday, May 14th at 7:00 pm. Our speaker will be Jacob Freewin from Brigham Young University and his talk is titled New evidence of a large theropod dinosaur in the Yellow Cat Member (Barremian) of the Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, USA.
The meeting will be held in the auditorium of the Utah Department of Natural Resources/Utah Geological Survey main building, located at 1594 W North Temple, Salt Lake City. Please be aware that the DNR building has installed security gates preventing entry from Redwood Road, so plan your route accordingly and park in front of the building at the main entrance.
The online link to attend the hybrid meeting is meet.google.com/kyg-eyoe-
Jacob Frewin is an undergraduate student at the BYU department of geological sciences whose main focus is paleontology. He grew up on sunny gulf coast of Florida and his hobbies include playing both the cello and guitar, as well as videography and exploring nature.
When he was five years old, his parents showed him an article about BYU digging up dinosaurs by chiseling away at rocks. After stealing some tools from his dad and digging out a piece of limestone from his dirt road, he began to look for fossils of his own. After working at the rock for several hours, he finally found a small fossil shell. At that moment he knew he had to be a paleontologist. After enrolling as a homeschool student in high school, his desire to study paleontology took off as he attended digs with both the University of Florida and the Smithsonian.
His future plans involve obtaining his master’s degree in geology. After serving a mission to Taiwan and learning Chinese, he plans on studying dinosaurs in china and comparing the evolutionary history of North America and China.
When asked why a student should study geology, Jacob responded, “Because the History of the World is just that fascinating. There is nothing like digging up fossils that have been buried for millions of years.