So the annual SVP (Society of Vertebrate Paleontology)
meeting is over for another year – and what an excellent meeting it has turned
out to be. Every meeting has its plus and minus points but I don’t think I know
of a meeting in recent times which has met with such universal acclaim. And it
appears that I am far from being alone since everybody I have spoken to about
it has agreed. Indeed, there has not been one dissenting voice – not that I am
aware of anyway.
I arrived in Raleigh a little later than intended and
unfortunately missed out on the previously mentioned Witmer talk, “Fleshing Out the Past…..in 3D!” but this
was generally well received by those that attended and, I am told, enjoyed by
the general public which is always important for the science of palaeontology.
However, I did attend more or less all of the important
events over the following four days. And these really were full days since no
sooner had you finished one day then you were getting up bright and early to
start the next one. I was staying at one of the SVP affiliate hotels, the Clarion, a brisk fifteen minute walk to
the Raleigh Convention Center which was connected to the Marriott City Center hotel – the base for much of the SVP
membership.
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The Raleigh Convention Center |
The overall set up was impressive. There were plenty of
signs to direct you to where you needed to go and once around the circuit was
all you needed to familiarise yourself with the layout. The bottom floor was
the hub of all operations. Here could be found the registration desk, various
SVP related tables and a superb display from the different exhibitors which
included the Black Hills Institute who had a magnificent cast of Gorgosaurus libratus on display,
Triebold Paleontology, who were displaying a superb skull cast of the pliosaur Megalocephalosaurus and Research Casting
International, who were displaying a wonderful cast of juvenile tyrannosaurid
Jane (BMRP2002.4.1). Both the pliosaur and tyrannosaurid skulls were kindly
donated toward the SVP Annual Benefit & Social Auction.
The display from Paleotools and the SVP Preparator’s table
were right next to each other which was excellent for us preparators that were
in attendance. At the back of the hall were the poster boards and these were
large and plentiful. There was a reasonable amount of standing room in between
the posters and the poster sessions were always lively and enjoyable affairs. A
conveniently placed seating area was located at the front of the hall which was
always popular and seldom empty.
Three stories up were the three session halls – ballrooms A,
B and C. In reality these were one massive hall but the partitions were so
effective and virtually soundproof that you would not know it – only the sound
of applause would filter through to you as a technical talk ended. There were
the usual minor issues with the visual display aids not always working fluidly
and sometimes breaking up an author’s talk as they struggled to change frame or
get a video to run but these did not take anything away from the talks at all.
There were plenty of seats for all and these were fairly comfortable and set
out well.
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Check out the Acrocanthosaurus in the window! |
Special events included the welcome reception held at the
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. This was extremely well attended and
we were well looked after. The museum is a superb example of how a modern
museum should be set out with lots of state-of-the-art interactive displays
designed to engage the visiting public of all ages. I found the preparation laboratory
set up of particular interest and spent quite a while examining the skull of Acrocanthosaurus atokensis of which I
was one of many.
The SVP live and silent auctions took place on the Friday
night and were again well attended. The auctions were held in ballroom B and
there was plenty of room for all except in the scrimmage to get final bids in
during the silent auction! This year’s fancy dress theme for the auctioneers
was the Avengers and they all looked splendid in their costumes and they ran
the live auction with huge enthusiasm and took part in some great interaction
with the audience.
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Brent Breithaupt in his element! |
Particular highlights included Andy Farke’s winning bid for
a snazzy Holtz-inspired dinosaur waistcoat (which does actually suit you
Andy!), Larry Witmer’s superb tussle with Phil Currie for the cast skull of juvenile
tyrannosaurid Jane and a wonderfully entertaining bidding war between veterans
Brent Breithaupt and David Varricchio. Phil Currie did gain some compensation
by outbidding me for a cast of a T.rex
arm – I was a little miffed since Phil has loads of tyrannosaurs at his
disposal! But it was all for a good cause so well done Phil!
I gained a little compensation in the silent auction by
successfully bidding for a copy of Jack Horner’s Prosaurolophus monograph – a superb paper and really what I was
looking for as I enlarge my library dedicated to hadrosaur cranial morphology
and also to help with identifying some indeterminate hadrosaur material.
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The silent auction on progress |
The final evening saw the awards banquet and after hours
party. No doubt you will have heard and seen many of the reviews and references
that have been all over the social media network during the last few days.
Suffice to say that the awards banquet was a great occasion and made enjoyable
by sharing a table with likes of John Hutchinson, Andy Farke, Stephen Gatesy,
Robert Kambic, Peter Falkingham, Ryan Carney, Frank Varriale and Anthony
Maltese.
The after hour’s party was great fun and everyone was happy
to let their hair down after four days of presentations and functions. Everyone
got into the spirit of things and it was a great way to finish the week. I have
not included everything that went on during the week but I am sure it all went
off well with equal success.
For me, I learnt an awful lot and I was glad to catch up
with colleagues whom I had not seen for a while. It was also the opportunity to
make new friendships and I have been touched by the amount of time and advice given
by various people along the way – so thank you to you all. In particular I am
grateful to Jeff Liston, Yasemin Tulu, Hanneke Meijer, Stephen Brusatte, Thomas
Carr, Nina Sverdlova, Stu Pond, Mike Triebold and particularly Anthony Maltese who was
very generous with his time in both discussion and at a social level – it really
was very much appreciated.
So coming up – a multitude of posts regarding some of the
content from this year’s conference of which some will have already been
mentioned, some that won’t and a selection of goodies somewhere in between. It
really has been a great conference and everyone is already looking forward to
Los Angeles next year.
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Megalocephalosaurus courtesy of Triebold Paleontology |