The Maryland Geological Society, a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to the collection, study, and display of all aspects of the geological sciences, is composed of amateur and professional fossil and mineral collectors. Membership is open to all and visitors to our meetings are always welcome!

The Maryland Geological Society and the American Fossil Federation met jointly on July 12. During the business sessions, the two clubs agreed to hold an auction later in the year. Date and other information to follow.

Members were treated to a talk by paleontologist Stephen Godfrey, Curator of Paleontology of the Calvert Marine Museum, who spoke on two disparate topics. First, he described the roller-coaster process by which legislation made its way through the Maryland legislature this year that designates the extinct shark megalodon as Maryland's offical State Shark.


He followed that with a talk about pterosaur physiology, specifically how certain skeletal features may have evolved to serve the cranial movement and feeding habits of the pterosaur Dsungaripterus. He suggested that, given the skeletal similarities between Dsungaripterus and the extant cormorant, the former may have shared the cormorant's ability to swallow enormous prey. He offered an entertaining AI-generated image of what Dsungaripterus might have looked like in the process.


During the meeting, Eric Seifter, MGS Vice President, briefly discussed the impressive array of Ecphora fossil shells he had on display, as well as, the designation in 1994 of Ecphora gardnerae gardnerae (Wilson), as the official Maryland State Fossil Shell.

Next meeting: September 13, 2026, from 12 to 3 PM
Activity:TBA
Location: Meeting room of the Eastport Volunteer Fire Department at 914 Bay Ridge Ave, Annapolis, MD 21403. Directions are here.

A list of some fossil and mineral clubs' shows in the eastern region of the U.S. is on the Eastern Federation of Mineralogical and Lapidary Societies' calendar.

The third volume in the Smithsonian series on the vertebrate paleontology of the Calvert Cliffs has been released. This volume, edited by Stephen J. Godfrey and Gary J. Grimsley, focuses on elephants, land mammals, and seals. It can be accessed here.

Former MGS youth member Adrian Boeye and three colleagues have authored a study that posits that Tyrannosaurus had a walking and running gait similar to that of birds. This has major implications for our understanding of the frequency and length of the animal's strides and its possible velocity. The study was published in Royal Society Open Science and is available here. Not bad for a college undergraduate! He also has an article in the most recent edition of the MGS newsletter that discusses the process of taking on this research. The full edition of the newsletter can be found here.

A fossil snake vertebra found by long-time MGS member Mike Folmer in the Eocene Fisher-Sullivan site (aka Muddy Creek) and donated to the Virginia Museum of Natural History is the subject of a new research paper. This vertebra, from the middle of the trunk of a Constrictore (e.g., boas and pythons), is the first found this far north and the first from the Atlantic coast. The study was published in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica and is available here.