Future Colorado Scientific Society Meetings
Note: The Colorado Scientific Society has adopted the federal fiscal year calendar of Oct 1 – Sept 30 for our expenses and membership. The vast majority of our renewals start late in the calendar year (~Nov) and dribble into the following spring (~March) with very few received outside that window.
Check the Fiscal Year 2026 CSS Paid Membership List for your status.
We normally hold monthly meetings from September through May.
Our meetings are both in-person and virtual.
Meetings are normally on the third Thursday of the month.
All are welcome – no admission charge
Join us at in-person after 6:30 pm for social time before the meeting. (The CSS Past Presidents’ Dinner social time starts at 5:30.)
Join Zoom meetings after 6:45
Meeting and Program begin at 7:00
Colorado Scientific Society 2026 Past Presidents’ Dinner and Program
Reconstructing a Cretaceous Arctic marine ecosystem and tackling a fossil “who-dung-it” mystery
Dr. Karen Chin, University of Colorado, Boulder
CU Museum of Natural History
Dinner and presentation at the Mount Vernon Canyon Club
24933 Clubhouse Circle, Golden, CO 80401
(on Lookout Mtn., off I-70)
We are in Canyon Room with it’s balcony overlooking Clear Creek and the Divide. It is accessed by both stairs and an elevator.
Social Time 5:30 pm
Dinner Service 7:00 pm
Program 8:00-9:00 pm
Everyone is welcome.
Menu
Dinner Buffet with Cash Bar
$70 regular
$30 student (for the first 10 students)
Salads:
- Mixed Green Salad (GF): Mixed greens, blue cheese crumbles, granny smith apples, and pecans served with maple vinaigrette dressing
- Peach Panzanella Salad: Peaches, raspberries, grilled ciabatta, arugula, Bermuda Onion and goat cheese with white balsamic vinaigrette
Entrées:
- Colorado Pan Seared Chicken (GF): Frenched chicken breast, poblano sauce, corn relish
- Peach Pork Chop (GF): Colorado Inspired with peach chutney
Starch: Maple roasted sweet potato hash (GF)
Vegetable: Bistro seasonal vegetables (GF)
Rolls with butter
Drinks: Coffee, Tea, Iced tea
Dessert: Petite Gourmet Dessert Display: Chocolate cup mousse, Key lime pie cup
Online Registration and Payment via PayPal
Please make online reservations by Monday, September 7th.
Use this form to Register for CSS Past Presidents’ Dinner by USPS mail with a check.
Send in Reservation by USPS with check
Link to Join CSS Past Presidents Dinner talk via Zoom
CSS invites you to Join our meeting via Zoom on Thursday, September 10th at 7:45 pm.
Mount Vernon Canyon Club
The Mount Vernon Canyon Club is southwest of Lookout Mountain north of I-70 via exit 254 (Buffalo Overlook).
Link to Mount Vernon Canyon Club on Google Maps
If you need a ride or can give someone a ride, please tell us (at the bottom of your Past Presidents’ Dinner registration).
Reconstructing a Cretaceous Arctic marine ecosystem and tackling a fossil “who-dung-it” mystery
Dr. Karen Chin, University of Colorado, Boulder
Professor and Curator of Paleontology, CU Museum of Natural History
Abstract: Fossil evidence from Devon Island in the Canadian High Arctic sheds light on a marine ecosystem that flourished in the warm temperate Arctic during the greenhouse world of the Cretaceous. A thick sedimentary sequence of the Kanguk Formation preserves dense concentrations of planktonic microfossils, modest numbers of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils, and innumerable coprolites (fossil feces). These fossils reveal a surprisingly productive ancient ecosystem and shed light on paleoenvironmental conditions in the Cretaceous Arctic. But why are many more coprolites than body fossils found in the area, and who produced the feces? Recent research helps answer the “who” and “why” of this “who-dung-it” mystery.
Dr. Karen Chin studies the structure & dynamics of Mesozoic ecosystems. Her work focuses on how ancient communities of organisms differed from those in modern ecosystems, and what types of interactions occurred within vertebrate communities and the environments they shared. She is renowned as a leading expert in the study of coprolites (fossilized feces) and employs a multidisciplinary approach involving geological, biological, and chemical characteristics of coprolites, trace fossils and body fossils. Her work focuses on understanding interactions among ancient organisms, and deducing the environmental conditions in which these organisms lived and were fossilized.
Also see:
Discovering the Past Through Dino Poop
Episode #40 Who Dung It? with Karen Chin | Paleo Nerds
Flyer for 2026 Colorado Scientific Society Past Presidents’ Dinner
Online Registration and Payment via PayPal
Please make online reservations by Monday, September 7th.
Use this form to Register for CSS Past Presidents’ Dinner by USPS mail with a check.
Send in Reservation by USPS with check
Geological Society of America
GSA Connects 2026 Annual Meeting
October 11-14, 2026
Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado
The Colorado Scientific Society will share an exhibit hall booth at the meeting with the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge.
If you will be at the GSA Meeting, please stop by. If you can volunteer at the booth, please contact us.
Several field trips on the meeting program will be led or co-led by CSS members.
The Colorado Scientific Society will be cohosting a Topical Session:
Peaks, Plains, and Plateaus: 150 years of Colorado Science Discoveries
CSS October Meeting
Up a River with Big Paddles: a Freshwater “Sea Turtle” from the Cretaceous of Southern Utah
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Dr. Josh Lively, Curator of Paleontology
Utah State University Eastern, Prehistoric Museum
In-person Meeting at Calvary Church, Golden
All are welcome – no admission charge
Join us at in-person after 6:30 pm for social time before the meeting.
Join Zoom meetings after 6:45
Meeting and Program begin at 7:00
Link to Join CSS October Meeting via Zoom
CSS invites you to Join our meeting via Zoom on Thursday, October 15th at 6:45 pm.
The details about attending the meeting in person at the Golden Calvary Church follow the details about the talk.
Up a River with Big Paddles: a Freshwater “Sea Turtle” from the Cretaceous of Southern Utah
Over three decades of work in the Upper Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation has produced a rich fossil assemblage that includes representatives of the entire ecosystem, from plants to dinosaurs. Turtle fossils are particularly abundant and diverse, with at least 16 species being discovered so far. In this presentation, Dr. Joshua Lively will discuss a new, massive turtle discovered in a tyrannosaur bonebed in the Kaiparowits Formation. Thus far, three individuals of varying sizes of this large turtle have been recovered from the site. A costal bone from the shell that is over 450 mm in width supports a total shell width of well over 1 m for the largest individual. This new species shares a number of features with Terlinguachelys from the Cretaceous of West Texas, a member of the sea turtle clade Protostegidae. Dr. Lively will present anatomical evidence and geochemical data that support this new species as a fully freshwater protostegid, making this the first freshwater “sea turtle” in the > 100 million year evolutionary history of the group.
Speaker
Joshua Lively, Ph.D., is the Curator of Paleontology at the Prehistoric Museum in Price, Utah. His main research interest is the spatial and temporal change in ecosystems – both freshwater and marine – during the Late Cretaceous, or last 34 million years of the Age of Dinosaurs. Lively’s specialties include turtles and mosasaurs, as both groups are well represented in the fossil record. He has spent the last 15 years conducting fieldwork in Utah and beyond.
Education: MS (2013): Univ. of Utah; PhD: Univ. of Texas at Austin (2019)
Keywords: Late Cretaceous, turtle fossils, Kaiparowits fm., Protostegidae
Flyer for Josh Lively’s Cretaceous Turtles, October CSS Talk
Meet Golden’s bacon turtle, an extinct species | CNN
Bizarre pig-nose turtle once swam the prehistoric seas of Utah – CSMonitor.com
In-person Meeting at Calvary Church, Golden
Enter off 14th Street, see map below.
All are welcome – no admission charge
6:30 pm – Social time starts
6:45 pm – Join Zoom meeting, if attending remotely
7:00 PM – Meeting starts.
Please arrive early. Church doors are locked, and you must text someone to get in after 7:00 pm.
(Text or call the phone number on the door to get in.)
1320 Arapahoe St, Golden, CO 80401
Click on link to open a Google map.
Enter off 14th St., going in via the main glass doors on 14th St.
Do not enter the old church above 13th St.
Go through building following the CSS signs to the Community Rooms 1 and 2, where we meet.
The church doors must stay locked, and we will have a person to let you in at the doors off 14th St.
They want to see the presentation too, so please arrive before 7:00 pm.
There will be a phone number that you can text to be let in if you arrive late.
For details about Parking, etc. see CSS Venue – Calvary Church, Golden
Copies of The Geology of Boulder County by Raymond Bridge (2004) are available for $20.
CSS November Meeting
Poster Night with Lightning Talks
Thursday, November 19, 2026
For Students and Early Career Earth Scientists
In-person Meeting at Calvary Church, Golden
CSS December Pot Luck Dinner and
Past President’s Address
December, 2026
Speaker: Amy Atwater, Director of Paleontology, Friends of Dinosaur Ridge
and current President of the Colorado Scientific Society
More details coming
Please pay your CSS dues for 2026!
Membership dues paid in November and December also apply to the following year.
You may pay dues online, or print out a PDF of the membership form and mail it to us with a check. Continuing your membership in CSS will enable us to continue all our ongoing programs, including our field trips, virtual meetings, Student Research Grants, and more.
See Membership and Donations for our online membership payment form and the CSS Membership printable PDF.
Regular Membership – $25;
Student Membership – (any level) $5;
Life Membership – $395.
Send your membership payment, if not done through our online membership payment form, to Colorado Scientific Society P.O. Box 150495 Lakewood, CO 80215-0495.
Thank you!
Meetings are normally on the third Thursday of the month.
All are welcome – no admission charge
Join us at in-person after 6:30 pm for social time before the meeting
Join Zoom meetings after 6:45
Meeting and Program begin at 7:00
See Archives of CSS Talks – Indexed (under Events) for previous Colorado Scientific Society Talks, or just follow the link.
