Colorado Scientific Society 2025 Past Presidents’ Dinner and Program
Thursday, September 18, 2025
This is also the Colorado Scientific Society’s September meeting.
Dinner and presentation at the Mount Vernon Canyon Club
24933 Clubhouse Circle, Golden, CO 80401
(on Lookout Mtn., off I-70)
We are in the Aspen Room on the top floor, which 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
Cash Bar
Dinner Buffet
$65 regular
$30 student
Mixed Green (GF) & Peach Panzanella Salads
Colorado Pan-Seared Chicken (GF)
Figgy Piggy (GF)
Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes (GF)
Bistro Seasonal Vegetables (GF)
Rolls with Butter
Assorted cup cakes
Coffee, Hot Tea, Iced Tea
[Vegetarian plates available]
Make your dinner reservations below.
The presentation will also be available via Zoom.
The link to join the Zoom meeting will be posted here later.
Tarryall Valley: Gold, Glaciers, and Giants
Mark S. Hanson, Senior geologist and historian
Tarryall Valley: Gold, Glaciers, and Giants – a 160-year history of the miners, mines, cabins, and the resulting patina on today’s Tarryall Valley of Colorado’s Front Range. A resident and owner of several patented gold claims, Mark will discuss the geology, economic resources, exploitation, and reforestation activities associated with Colorado’s first gold stampede.
Flyer for 2025 Colorado Scientific Society Past Presidents’ Dinner
You are not required to purchase dinner in order to attend the presentation.
Aspen room
Past Presidents at the 2022 Past Presidents Dinner
from bottom left: Lisa Fisher 2011, Marith Reheis 2017, Barney Poole 1990, Jim Cappa 2003; second row: Ned Sterne 2022, Karl Kellogg 1997, Cal Ruleman 2023, Pete Modreski 2012; third row: Bob Raynolds 2018, Bill Nesse 2007, Jim Paces 2020; fourth row: Matt Sares 2013, Scott Minor 2010, Tom Casadevall 2019See over 140 years of Colorado Scientific Society Past Presidents.
Colorado Scientific Society Emmons Lecture
The S.F. Emmons Lecture, which began in 1962, is a highlight of the Colorado Scientific Society’s activities and contributes not only to our standing in the scientific community but to the intellectual growth of our members and colleagues. The series is named in honor of the Society’s founder, S.F. Emmons. The lectures feature speakers that are recognized nationally or internationally as being at the forefront of research in some important facet of the earth sciences.
CSS May 2026 Meeting and Emmons Lecture
Spicomellus: Extreme armor in the world’s oldest ankylosaur
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Dr. D. Cary Woodruff, Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, Miami, FL
We met at Calvary Church, Golden
Speculative rendering by Matt Dempsey
Lecture Highlights:
The ankylosaur Spicomellus afer is truly one of the most bizarre dinosaurs discovered to date. Covered head to tail with elaborate osteoderms, including cervical spikes nearly a meter in length, Spicomellus looks more Hollywood kaiju than factual dinosaur. However, it’s not just the appearance of Spicomellus that makes it unique. The construct of its bizarre armament is unlike any other vertebrate—extinct or extant. Being from the Middle Jurassic, Spicomellus is also the oldest ankylosaur thus far known; and with this bizarre body armor, is rewriting the functional and evolutionary role of armor in this dinosaurian clade. Spicomellus, along with other Gondwanan clades found within the El Mers Group, are helping to further push back, and elucidate, the origins of several dinosaurian lineages.
Speaker Background:
Dr. Cary Woodruff is the Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Miami, Florida where he is building a dinosaur collection from scratch. Cary has published numerous scientific papers involving taphonomy, histology (microscopic anatomy), dinosaur vision, fossil laws and regulations, dinosaur biomechanics, ontogeny (growth and development), soft-tissue preservation, dinosaur behavior, and human-fossil interactions. Cary’s main research specialization is dedicated to sauropod (“long-necked”) dinosaurs studying everything from how long it took them to grow up, how their skeletons changed during growth, how they moved their enormous bodies, how they behaved, how they fed, what their anatomy was like. Cary has also published a number of books on dinosaurs for kids.
Education
BS & MS in Earth Science at Montana State Univ./Museum of the Rockies
PhD in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Univ. Toronto/Royal Ontario Museum
Keywords
Ankylosaur, Middle Jurassic, osteoderms, cervical spikes, El Mers Group, Morocco
Flyer for this CSS meeting: CSS May 2026 Emmons Lecture, Cary Woodruff; Spicomellus: extreme armor in the world’s oldest ankylosaur
Link to the paper: Extreme_armour_in_the_world’s_oldest_ankylosaur
