Fossil Hunting Near NYC (ONLINE)
Taught by Ben DiMatteo
A true fan of the woods, Ben has logged hundreds of miles solo and group trekking particularly on trails that can be reached from the city by public transportation. His youth in scouting and many adult years spent rediscovering the lost art of woodcraft provide a tried-and-true wealth of knowledge that can't be gleaned from gear reviews or recreation store salespeople. Though he hasn't thru-hiked the AT, he's sure he could.
When in the city, Ben brings the great outdoors inside and teaches several classes on how to make and keep terrariums.
*This is a live, online class via Zoom.*
Join us for a virtual tour of the New York City area's prehistoric timeline, covering over 500 million years, includes vibrant seafloors teaming with bizarre fauna, burning forests of massive tree ferns, muddy floodplains traversed by packs of raptor-like carnivores, maybe even a view of the first creature to crawl on land.
A New Yorker's journey into this past often begins and ends within a small corner of the Hall of Vertebrate Origins at the American Museum of Natural History, but nothing beats the thrill of finding a fossil knowing that you are the first to set eyes on it since it was buried in mud eons ago. Fortunately there's a wealth of opportunities to find fossils beyond Central Park West, even some within reach of a subway ride!
In this class you'll visit (virtually) several points of interest across Greater New York's prehistory that provide a narrow snapshot of ancient life on Earth, preserved and exposed through very specific and unlikely geologic processes. You'll learn the locations of several fossil hunting sites within a day trip of NYC, most of which require nothing more than a keen eye and roomy pockets.
