 Mark your Calendar for FossilFest 2026 March 21 - 22 |
TBFC Season 2025-2026 updates: Next In-Person Club Meeting is Mar. 7, 2026 @ 7pm EDT - Florida’s Pleistocene, A Whole Lotta Llamas with Dr. Richard Hulbert in the USF Behavioral Science Room #103 (Click Link for Directions) Next Peace River Monthly Trip: Mar. 14, 2026 (Paid, Active Members only and water levels permitting) - Zolfo Springs Guage Next Brooksville Trip: Feb. 18, 2026 (Paid, Active Members only. 18 or older. Limit 20 People) - Check the Chronicles for Details Next CEMEX Center Hill Trip: Feb. 25, 2026 (Paid, Active Members only. 18 or older. Limit 20 People) - Check the Chronicles for Details Next Bone Valley Fossil Farm Trip: Apr. 25, 2026 (Almost Full!) (Paid, Active Members only. Kid Friendly. Limit 20 Adults) Crystal River Holcim Mine: Apr. 25, 2026 CANCELLED For any updates you can check the Field Trips page or the Calendar for details! contact us or send us a Facebook message if you have questions. |
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Interested in being a Vendor for our 2026 FossilFest show on March 21 & 22?
Find more info on our new FossilFest Vendor page. View FossilFest information, send us your questions, access the application form and sign-up today! |
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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
2025-2026 Season
It's Crunch Time!
This is crunch time and we’re all running around like a bunch of dinosaurs with our heads cut off (chickens? get it?). In the next 90 days TBFC has a lot to prepare for and a lot of hard work too. FossilFest 2026 is just weeks away. Before the close of the 2025-26 season, we’ll squeeze a few more TBFC meetings in, a bunch of field trips, and throw in a big season ending dinner in June. Are you ready TBFC!
Support FossilFest - March 21 & 22 FossilFest 2026 is just around the corner. Please plan to attend! As I’ve reported to you in the past, most funds TBFC operates on throughout the year are generated at FossilFest. The event is important to TBFC, not just because of the financial earnings; almost all the media attention that helps attract new members to TBFC is received during the weeks leading up to FossilFest. Any help you can provide as a volunteer, or the donation of needed items is greatly appreciated. But you need to act fast. Members can see everything we need in this months edition of the Fossil Chronicles. Please help make FossilFest 2026 another great event!
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.
FossilFest 2026: - A reminder that FossilFest 2026 is right around the corner (March 21 & 22, with setup on March 20). Please mark your calendars and plan to volunteer for our biggest event of the year.
TBFC, the next few months are going to be busy! I look forward to seeing all of you at the next meeting.
Be good to one another and stay safe out there.
Good Hunting,
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):
Announcements
Next Meeting Presentation
Mar. 7, 2026Florida’s Pleistocene, A Whole Lotta Llamas
with Dr. Richard Hulbert, Florida Museum of Natural History
7PM IN-PERSON CLUB MEETING at USF Behavioral Science Room #103
In March we welcome
Dr. Richard Hulbert,
who received his Ph.D.
from the University of
Florida in 1987, upon
completing a dissertation about Miocene
horses. Afterwards he
was a professor of geology at Georgia Southern University and then
Vertebrate Paleontology Collections Manager from 2000-2022 at the Florida Museum of Natural History. He is
the author or co-author of 73 scientific publications. He edited and
wrote most of the book "The Fossil Vertebrates of Florida". While
best known for his studies on fossil horses and tapirs, he has published research on a broad array of fossil vertebrates including fish,
salamanders, turtles, alligators, bears, sabertoothed cats, peccaries,
mastodons, and whales. For the past two years he has turned his
sights on fossil llamas from the Pleistocene Epoch of Florida, and
his talk will cover some of the discoveries he has made over that
time. In particular, he will explain why a scientist needs to be very
careful to choose the right specimen for the holotype of the new
species they are naming. The wrong choice can result in a whole
lotta confusion years later.
Dr. Richard has long been a friend to TBFC and the amateur paleo
community. We look forward to seeing him.
Tampa Bay Fossil Chronicles
Hopefully you’ve noticed that TBFC has stepped up its game with the newsletter each month.
Please check out all of the articles in each issue. Only TBFC members receive the Chronicles, we don’t post it online or on Facebook.
Be sure to renew your Fossil
Permits! Never Dig into the River banks! Collection of Artifacts is Illegal on Florida state owned land!
