(Posted October 24, 2005)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Children from Huntingdon and surrounding communities are invited to forage for fossils with Juniata College geology students as part of "Fossil Fest 2005" from 2 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 30, starting from the Juniata campus.

The tour is free and open to the public. Transportation is not provided by the college. For further information, call (814) 641-3602.

The tour, aimed at children between six and 14 years old, will visit several sites near the Juniata campus to look for fossils. The locations for fossils are all new sites selected by the college's Andrew Lawson Geological Society of Juniata, the student club devoted to geology.

"All those who find fossils will be able to keep them," says David Lehmann, associate professor of geology and sponsor of the Geological Society of America, the college's student geology club.

The tour will leave at 2 p.m. from the Beeghly Library parking lot, which is on Moore Street across from the Brumbaugh Academic Center. Parents will be asked to drive to the several off-campus sites, all of which are close to Huntingdon. All participants must have an adult escort with them during the fossil hunt. Car-pooling is encouraged due to parking limitations on campus.

Tour participants will learn how fossils are formed as well as what the Huntingdon area was like when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. "You'll collect fossils of animals that lived in this area 150 million years before the first dinosaur," Lehmann says.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.