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Contact: Tera Lynn Gray, 308-665-4113
Over 50 online visitors helped Agate Fossil Beds National Monument celebrate International Women and Girls in Science Day last Saturday, Feb 11. Kristin I. Watmore and Kate LoMedico Marriott, two female paleontologists, presented their ongoing research about the animal fossils of Agate and surrounding Sioux County. A live chat on YouTube followed, with the two scientists answering questions and sharing their stories of being female scientists.
“Paleontology is a field that was dominated by men when James H. Cook happened upon those fossils on his ranch here in Sioux County,” said Tera Lynn Gray, lead interpretive ranger. “But now in 2023, Ms. Watmore happily pointed out all her cohorts in the Cal Poly Pomona graduate program are females.”
Ms. Watmore is a first year geology graduate student at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. She studies camelids, including Stenomylus excavated from Agate. She's researching why these camels evolved high-crowned teeth before their distant cousins, horses. Part of this research will include determining the specific diet available to these Miocene animals.
Ms. LoMedico Marriott is a paleontologist who studies ammonites, an ancient sea creature, found in the Pierre Shale rock layer just north of the monument. She created the "LLS Method" of measuring sutures, the lines connecting the shell parts. She talked about combining her ammonite research with her passion for art as an international award-winning paleo-artist.
Visitors said after the event that the program was educational and inspirational, and look forward to the next program. "It was actually a really neat way to do this. I haven’t done a live Q&A on a park before," said Jennifer Lankau-Chase, a teacher living in Houston. "That’s a great way to reach remote people but still interact. And it was really neat to learn how Kate merged science with her art! I'm going to share this with our visual arts people at the school."
International Women and Girls in Science Day was established in 2015 to support full participation and equal access for females in all Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields.
Missed the live event? You can still watch the recording on Agate’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@agatefossilbedsnps) or on their website (https://go.nps.gov/digupscience). The video is closed-captioned, audio-described, and interpreted into ASL. The chat is available to view on the YouTube channel.
Last updated: February 19, 2023