WOOSTER, OHIO–It was our pleasure to host Dr. Patrick O’Connor of Ohio University, who presented the 35th Annual Richard G. Osgood, Jr., Memorial Lecture. The Osgood Lectureship was endowed in 1981 by the three sons of Dr. Osgood in memory of their father, who was an internationally known paleontologist at Wooster from 1967 to 1981. We have had outstanding speakers through this lectureship, and Dr. O’Connor was one of the best. He gave his public lecture last evening (“Cretaceous Terrestrial Vertebrates from Gondwana: Insights from Eastern Africa and Madagascar”) and then a more detailed presentation to our Geology Club this morning (shown in the image above). We all learned a great deal, and Dr. O’Connor was especially good at asking our students questions.
In Geology Club today Dr. O’Connor brought casts of fossils (like the above Maastrichtian theropod from Madagascar) and actual fossils (like the Maastrichtian bird bones from Madagascar shown below).
We very much appreciated Dr. O’Connor’s diverse scientific skills and accomplishments, along with his enthusiasm and good humor. This is exactly what the Osgood Lectureship is about.
