Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology

Welcome hunters! The world of Astera is filled with amazing and terrifying monsters, but did you know that these fantasy monsters were inspired by real life dinosaurs and other extinct creatures? Join our hosts, Gabe and Brittney, and guest paleontologists, Dr. Andrew McDonald and Billie Guerrero, as they explore the world (and science) of Monster Hunter World! Fossil Friday Chats is brought to you by Alf Museum and the Western Science Center.

Some dinosaurs were K strategists, some were r, To impress a mate, dinosaurs would growl and others would rawr! Whatever your strategy to impress your special bae,... The Alf Museum wishes you a Happy Valentine’s Day! Check out more paleo cards to send to your Valentine below

As we continue to celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we want to honor and recognize the amazing scientists and educators at the Alf Museum, past and present, who work everyday to inspire future scientists and make us "world-class"! Pictured (starting top left): Kathy Sanders: Educator & Office Manager Monique Reyes (& daughter): Tours Manager (& Future Scientist)... Bailey Jorgensen: Senior Collections Assistant Chelsea Moreno: Outreach Assistant Billie Guerrero: Outreach & Collections Assistant Nel Graham: Outreach Assistant See more

Today we celebrate #InternationalDayOfWomenInScience! We'll start by sharing the stories and work of these amazing paleontologists. Hear their stories and get to know them more on our Women of Paleontology playlist. Link: https://t.co/U3wIvJAXB7?amp=1 And don't forget to tune in to #FossilFriday Chats tomorrow at 10am PT as Dr. Katy Smith joins us to tell us the "Tale of Two Mastodons"... Link: https://youtu.be/fGvFWn8gs2k

Congratulations to Alf Museum outreach coordinator and collections manager, Gabriel Santos, on being named a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions! Read more about this year's fellows here: https://blog.education.nationalgeographic.org//national-g/

MUSEUM CLOSURE UPDATE: The Alf Museum remains closed to the public until further notice due to COVID-19. While LA County has entered Phase 3 of the Roadmap to Recovery, The Webb Schools and the Alf Museum are closely monitoring the spread of COVID-19 and have chosen to remain closed in consideration of our students, staff, and Webb community. The Alf Museum remains dedicated to serve as a world-class educational resource for educators throughout Los Angeles and the Inland Emp...ire. As an alternative to on-site visits, the Alf Museum offers many virtual experience programs for an engaging online experience to learn about paleontology and natural history. To stay connected on all our programs and updates about reopening, visit us online or sign up for our mailing list. www.alfmuseum.org www.facebook.com/alfmuseum Twitter: @alfmuseum Instagram: @alfpaleo Mailing List: https://forms.gle/7MuPr5BsxXsy45kd6

The Alf Museum is pleased to announce Dr. Alexis Mychajliw as this year’s recipient of the Raymond M. Alf Award for Excellence in Paleontological Research and Education. The award honors a paleontologist who demonstrates exceptional achievement both in original scientific research, as well as in education and outreach at the primary and secondary school (K12) levels. Dr. Mychajliw is a Postdoctoral Associate at The University of Oklahoma and a Research Associate at the La Br...ea Tar Pits and Museum. She is a noted expert on Ice Age animals, particularly in studies that use the fossil record to understand contemporary issues of wildlife conservation. Congratulations to Dr. Mychajliw on this well-deserved honor! Read the full article here: https://www.alfmuseum.org/paleontologist-and-educator-alex/ Watch Dr. Mychajliw’s acceptance speech: https://youtu.be/Zv6YEvtwoPs

TGI #FossilFriday! No new episode of FFC this week. Our hosts are still recovering from their 10 hour National Fossil Day livestream! If you missed any of the virtual museum tours from the stream, you can catch the recorded episodes on our YouTube channel! Fossil Friday Chats and the Lets Tour Livestream are brought to you by the Alf Museum and Western Science Center. https://www.youtube.com/playlist

We've got a last minute stop for our "Let's Tour!" Livestream, the La Brea Tar Pits! Paleontologists, Dr. Mairin Balisi and Laura Tewksbury, are bringing us on a virtual tour of the Tarpits collections and excavation sites! Join us on YouTube at 5pm Pacific Time for the virtual tour and Q&A with our guest paleontologists! Livestream link: https://youtu.be/XPuI7soi0do

Tomorrow is National Fossil Day! Our "Let's Tour!" livestream event begins at 8am Pacific Time and then we'll be virtually visiting our friends at other museums every hour. Be sure to stick around because we'll have a Q&A with our virtual hosts at their museums at the end of each tour. Got questions, but can't make the livestreams? Send us your questions in the comments. All livestreams will be recorded and will be immediately available for viewing on our YouTube channel fo...llowing the live portion. Watch or set a reminder for each virtual tour here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist

Wednesday is #NationalFossilDay! Join the Alf Museum and Western Science Center as we go behind-the-exhibits of 9 special museum collections across the US and meet the paleontologists who care for the fossils kept within. Learn more about the museums we'll be visiting for our Let's Tour! Livestream!

National Fossil Day is next Wednesday! Join the Alf Museum and Western Science Center as we take a virtual behind-the-exhibits tour of museums across the US and meet the paleontologists who care for them! Be sure to tune in for the live episodes for special Q&A's with our guest paleontologists. All times listed in Pacific Time (UTC-8:00) Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist... National Fossil Day is brought to you by the National Park Service.

Let's celebrate museum collections this National Fossil Day! In museums around the world, what you see on exhibit is only a small portion of their whole collection. To really appreciate a museum and its importance, you must go behind the exhibits. In this special National Fossil Day online event, join us as we visit museums across the US to get a special look inside their fossil collections and learn why these unseen collections are so important for science! Presented live on... our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/alfmuseumpaleo All times in Pacific Time. Tune in on the hour for a virtual tour and online audience Q&A with paleontologists from the featured museums. National Fossil Day: "Let's Tour!" Livestream brought to you by the Alf Museum and the Western Science Center. National Fossil Day is brought to you by the National Parks Services.

Dinosaur National Monument's Jurassic superstars like Allosaurus and Diplodocus have kept it a paleontological hotspot for over a century. On this episode, we meet paleontologist and grad student, Tut Tran, and learn how he helped in protecting these fossils for future generations. Tune in this Friday, October 9, at 10am on YouTube! Brought to you by the Alf Museum and Western Science Center.

Take a walk through West Virginia's fossil record on this episode of Fossil Friday Chats with Potomac State College librarian and educator, Nicholas Gardner! West Virginia's fossils include not only the magnificent giant ground sloth but also a 300 million-year-old sequence of animals and plants from before the dinosaurs. Tune in on Friday, October 2nd at 10am PT on YouTube! Brought to you by Alf Museum and Western Science Center.

#TGIFossilFriday! Join us now on YouTube to learn about extreme dinosaur heads from Dr. Ali Nabavizadeh! Link: https://youtu.be/D-AACw0UnEU

Please welcome our newest addition to the Alf Crew, Hannah Caisse! Hannah is joining the Alf Museum as our new science illustration intern from the Cal State Monterey Bay science illustration program. For her internship, Hannah will be working remotely to create some new artwork for our museum programs! Meet Hannah: "Hi, I'm Hannah, a recent graduate from CSUMB's science illustration graduate program, and I am honored to be an intern at the Alf. My combined background in scie...nce and art is an invaluable asset when I approach my illustrations. Not only am I dedicated to portraying as many visual facts as possible in my work, but also I strive to give my illustration subjects a sense of self, a life perceived beyond the paper. I am greatly looking forward to the collaborations with staff this fall to create some fantastic paleoart!" To learn more about Hannah's work, visit her website (https://www.hannahcaisse.com/) or check out her instagram (www.instagram.com/synap_sida)

EXTREME DINOSAUR HEADS! On this week's Fossil Friday Chats episode, paleontologist, Dr. Ali Nabavizadeh, joins us to chat about the many ways plant-eating #dinosaurs evolved to monch! Join us on YouTube on 9/25 at 10am PT: https://youtu.be/D-AACw0UnEU Fossil Friday Chats is brought to you by the Alf Museum and the Western Science Center.