News Release

Dig Into the Latest Science at Agate with Paleontologist Kristin Watmore

Margaret & Dorothy Cook watch while Winifred Cook reaches into a hole of a dig site with men from Harvard University.

NPS Photo

News Release Date: February 5, 2023

Contact: Tera Lynn Gray

Join Agate Fossil Beds National Monument rangers and paleontologist Kristin Watmore on a live video premiere and online Q&A Saturday, February 11 at 1 p.m. on YouTube. Watmore will be discussing her ongoing research into the Miocene epoch mammals for which Agate is world-famous. 

“A question we get a lot from visitors to Agate Fossil Beds is ‘what excavations are happening,” said Tera Lynn Gray, lead interpretive ranger. “While there may not be active dig sites for people to see, there is still a lot of important science coming out of the Fossil Hills.” 

Kristin Watmore, graduate student at California Polytechnic University, Pomona is preparing to publish her newest research on the camel-like animals that lived in Agate in the Miocene. She will be presenting the findings of the work she completed under professor and prolific science author Dr. Donald Prothero of CalPoly Pomona and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. 

This special online event falls on International Women and Girls in Science Day. Established in 2015, this day supports full participation and equal access for females in all Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. 

“Paleontology is a field that was dominated by males when James H Cook happened upon those fossils on his ranch here in Sioux County,” Gray said. “But now in 2023, Ms. Watmore is pleased to point out all her cohorts in the Cal Poly Pomona graduate program are females.” 

Listen to Ms. Kristin Watmore speak at the YouTube Premiere at https://www.youtube.com/@agatefossilbedsNPS. The video is pre-recorded with captions, audio-description, and interpreted into ASL. During the premiere at 1pm, Ms. Watmore will be present on the chat to answer your questions about her work.