Be sure to renew your Fossil Permits! Never Dig into the River banks! Collection of Artifacts is Illegal on Florida state owned land!

President's Message

2026-2027 Season

What a great opening meeting for the 2026 - 2027 season!

We had about 100 people show up for the first meeting, which is typical attendance for a September. What was remarkable, however, was we had more than a dozen first timers. We always have one or two new folks each month, but we don’t even get a dozen new members at the April meeting right after FossilFest. I want to extend a warm welcome to all of you new folks, as well as to those of you who have stuck with us over the years. For you first timers, I have to say that it was a particularly long meeting. But then again, we were all excited to be back from summer break!

Some of this new attention to TBFC has been helped along by some of the television coverage we’ve been getting lately. The area PBS channel, WEDU, recently filmed a segment about TBFC on their show Greater Wauchula (Thanks Joyce Cotton for getting this started). The segment featured some of the remarkable fossils Dr. Bob Sinibaldi has been finding, as well as (nearly) lifelong member Joe Branin. Other members were involved, too, including the good work Karissa Hendershot does on TBFC’s Peace River day trips.

I have to say that it is by far the best-produced and most well-done television spot we have ever been involved with. You can search for the show online or find it on TBFC’s YouTube page.

Since March of this year, Dr. Bob has also been featured on the local Fox affiliate’s Florida Tonight doing a segment called “Florida Unearthed.” The segments run on the second Wednesday of each month and airs at 7 p.m. on Tampa’s channel 13.

It was, and is, a lot of work preparing for these television spots. I want to thank everyone involved for helping with these projects. It has certainly been a team effort and it has been great seeing TBFC and its members getting this kind of attention.

Due to the tight notification on scheduling for September at USF, we typically have a local speaker. This time, we welcomed local club member and TBFC Director Eileen Durkin, who spoke about great white sharks (video will be posted on YouTube in the coming weeks). It was Eileen’s first public lecture, and it went great! Judging by the many questions and comments shared after the presentation, the crowd really enjoyed it.

I’d also like to thank Dr. Bob Sinibaldi for his recognition of my 25 years as president of TBFC (and my wife’s 25 years as First Lady and Director). At the meeting we were presented with wooden keepsake boxes custom-designed with pyrography (wood burning) done by Dr. Bob himself. We truly appreciate the thoughtful gifts and are honored to represent the greatest fossil club in the world!

Congratulations to Our 2026 Scholarship Winners

I want to congratulate one of the two winners for 2026, Elise Samuelson. Elise attends the University of South Florida and is a Ph.D. student who joined TBFC Advisor Dr. Ryan Carney’s lab as an undergraduate during the summer of 2021.

Of particular interest to Elise are studies relating to anatomy, phylogeny, and morphology. Elise also has special skills and interests in 3D modeling, 3D printing, and digital art, and hopes to be able to incorporate these into her work. She plans to form her dissertation around crocodilian locomotion, specifically looking into forelimb walk cycles by reconstructing the anatomy in a 3D digital environment. With this, the findings can be used to infer and compare forelimb movement in both extinct and extant species of archosaurs.

At one of TBFC’s upcoming meetings, we will present a second scholarship to University of Florida student, Shay Rice, Ph.D.

Be good to one another and stay safe out there.

Good Hunting,

Please be very cautious while venturing out into the rivers and creeks. There’s nothing in those rivers worth dying for.

Greater Wauchula: Fossils

The area PBS channel, WEDU, recently filmed this segment about TBFC on their show Greater Wauchula (Thanks Joyce Cotton for getting this started). The segment featured some of the remarkable fossils Dr. Bob Sinibaldi has been finding, as well as (nearly) lifelong member Joe Branin. Other members were involved, too, including the good work Karissa Hendershot does on TBFC’s Peace River day trips.

I have to say that it is by far the best-produced and most well-done television spot we have ever been involved with. You can watch it right here, below!



Missed a meeting or just want to watch it again? You can view our past meeting recordings or live streams in the playlist below (Also found in the About section):

New Members! - Over the last few meetings, we’ve been thrilled to welcome an increasing number of new members. It’s genuinely exciting to see fresh faces in the crowd, and we look forward to getting to know each of you, both at our meetings and out in the field. If you’re new to TBFC, thank you for choosing to join us. You are now part of a community of almost 600 fossil enthusiasts who share a passion for discovery, science, and Florida’s rich prehistoric past.

We meet monthly (except July and August), typically on the first Saturday. Schedule updates to the website will be made, as occasional schedule changes do occur. Field trips are also listed here and discussed at each meeting. We encourage you to attend regularly and join us afterward for a late dinner, where the conversation continues, usually about fossils, but not always, until the restaurant finally asks us to leave.