Meet the Experts
Lectures and Conversations
Saturday programme
Saturday @ 1130-1210 – The Rock Showman’s Booth
Mapping the Yorkshire Wolds – Dr Laura Burrel Garcia
Drop deep into East Yorkshire’s Jurassic and Cretaceous past as Laura shares her experience as a researcher and fieldworker with British Geological Survey.
Laura will be one of the scientists leading Monday’s Field Day to Speeton, also known as the chalk gawk walk and talk
Saturday @ 1230-1330 – The Rock Showman’s Booth
Lunchtime Lecture: Mineral Wealth of The North – Rick Smith
The North of England’s diverse geology contains resources that have fired industry for hundreds of years. In his first of two festival conversations, industry Geologist Rick Smith shares this diversity through a whistlestop tour of the last few hundred million years. From Stone Axes to Polyhalite, Alum to Zinc, Rick shares Geology & personal experiences of working in mines, mapping out resources and having Woodsmith mine named after him!
Saturday @ 1400-1430 – The Rock Showman’s Booth
Art and Science of Plesiosaurs – Dr Luke Muscutt
Dr Luke Muscutt comes to the science of palaeontology not as someone who digs fossils out of the ground, but as an engineer, robot designer and creative. Spend 30 minutes to look at long necked marine reptiles with fresh eyes.
Saturday @ 1500-1545 – The Rock Showman’s Booth
North East England and the Climate Crisis – Peter Stark
Peter Stark shares his compelling lecture on North East England’s role in the climate crisis. His compelling story connects the regional history of coal mining with technology and culture that was exported across the world, leading to where we are today. This talk lays the framework for Sunday’s Showcase Lecture at 4pm
Saturday @ 1600-1645 – The Rock Showman’s Booth
SHOWCASE LECTURE
Between the Devil (toenails) and the Deep Jurassic Sea – Dr Jed Atkinson
Hidden beneath the sands of Redcar are outcrops of the oldest Jurassic rocks on the Yorkshire Coast. For well over a century these rocks were largely overlooked, despite representing an interval of time significant to the recovery from the end-Triassic mass extinction event. Redcar offers us a chance to look at how life bounced back in the Early Jurassic, to study the faunas and changing environments of this time, and to explore how the Devil’s Toenails fit into this story.
Lectures and Conversations
Sunday Programme
Sunday @ 1130-1200 – The Rock Showman’s Booth
Yorkshire’s Plesiosaurs – Richard Forrest
This year marks the 201st anniversary of Mary Anning’s discovery of the Plesiosaur. But what do we know about Yorkshire’s plesiosaurs? Some spectacular specimens have been found along the coast, both in historical times and the modern era.
Sunday @ 1230-1315 – The Rock Showman’s Booth
Mapping the Yorkshire Wolds – Dr Laura Burrel Garcia
Drop deep into East Yorkshire’s Jurassic and Cretaceous past as Laura shares her experience as a researcher and fieldworker with British Geological Survey.
Laura will be one of the scientists leading Monday’s Field Day to Speeton, also known as the chalk gawk walk and talk
Sunday @ 1345-1430 – The Rock Showman’s Booth
PANEL CONVERSATION : Mesozoic Marine Monsters
When dinosaurs roamed the land, it was the Marine Reptiles that ruled the sees, and the Yorkshire Coast is a world-renowned site for Marine Reptile Fossils from the Mesozoic Era. Our panel of Palaeontologist experts come together to talk about the underwater world of marine reptiles. Featuring Dr Rebecca Bennion, Dr Luke Muscutt and Richard Forrest. Moderated by Dr Jed Atkinson
Sunday @ 1500-1545 – The Rock Showman’s Booth
Attenborough and The Robot Plesiosaur – Dr Luke Muscutt
Late last year the BBC introduced the story of Sea Rex, a giant pliosaur found by amateur fossil enthusiast Philip Jacobs and extracted by Dorset palaeontologists and the Etches Collection. To bring that creature to life, science required ingenuity, creative thinking and the arts. Step in aerospace engineer Dr Luke Muscutt, who’s Robot Plesiosaur ‘Flip’ has been creating waves in more than just Imperial College’s Hydrodynamics lab
Sunday @ 1600-1645 – The Rock Showman’s Booth
SHOWCASE PANEL CONVERSATION
The North of England – Our Geoheritage – Past, Present and Future
The festival’s second Showcase Lecture bring’s together three great minds from very different fields to discuss climate change, the current data, this panel conversation includes ‘founder’ of Woodsmith Mine, Geologist Rick Smith; National Strategy developer for Natural England, Rachel Murtagh; Heritage Researcher and passionate communicator Mr Peter Stark and you. Together we explore past, present and future and consider changes and solutions that can contribute to environmental recovery.
Performers
Wild West Dino Discovery 🦖
Saturday and Sunday
11-4
The Wild West of Majuba Rd
Travel back to the golden days of great American Dinosaur Discoveries in this interactive camp. Learn about the Bone Wars from your dino-digging host and maybe even see a triceratops!
Olivia Rafferty 🎶
Saturday
3pm
Singer Songwriter writes authentic rock music – songs inspired by geology! She’ll be playing several sets earlier in the day as part of Kite Festival, and in the Amphitheatre at 3pm
Keneish Dance – Balance ⚖️
Sunday 26th May
12-1230 & 2:45-3:15
The Amphitheatre
Keneish Dance’s latest mesmerising Dance production, takes inspiration from immune cells; a metaphor for uniting the past and present into equilibrium. Take a deep dive into regenerative inner working of bodies. The rounding of the immune cell sphere, its spontaneous shuffling and fanning motion; all expressed through high spirited dance.
The event is family friendly and we encourage you to bring along everyone that you love for an unforgettable experience.
Lizzie Lovejoy – Set In Stone: Fossil Flash Fiction Stories and Poems
Sunday 26th May
Pop-Up performances throughout the day
Listen to a series of stories and poems about our fossils, performed by NE Culture Award winning artist Lizzie Lovejoy.
Exhibitors
The Palaeontological Association
https://www.palass.org/
Including world-renowned palaeo-artist James McKay
Dinosaur Isle Museum, Isle of Wight
https://www.dinosaurisle.com/
Flip the Plesiosaur Robot (Dr Luke Muscutt)
https://muscutt.org/
Yorkshire Geological Society
https://www.yorksgeolsoc.org.uk/
Get your rocks and fossils cut and polished with the YGS rock-cutters!
Geologists’ Association
https://geologistsassociation.org.uk/
British Geological Survey
https://www.bgs.ac.uk/
Yorkshire Underground, featuring fossils, cores, and geological Lego activities.
University of Leeds
https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/see
Including fossil printing activities
Yorkshire Museum
https://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/
Mary Anning’s plesiosaurs with the Yorkshire Museum
Discover these mysterious sea dragons, 200 years since Mary Anning found the very first complete skeleton. You may even meet Mary herself!
Whitby Museum https://whitbymuseum.org.uk/
Yorkshire Natural History Museum https://ynhm.org/
Fossils in t’Hills https://fossilsinthills.weebly.com/
Richard Forrest
http://plesiosaur.com/plesiosaurs.php
Rotunda Geology Group, Scarborough (Sunday only)
Traders
Fossils-UK.com
(Saturday and Sunday)
Fossils-uk.com will be offering our popular T-rex Tombola, Free Fossil Identifications, Fossil Preparation Advice and Worldwide Fossils For Sale. Fossils-uk.com is proud to support the Yorkshire Fossil Festival.
https://www.fossils-uk.com/
Fossil Coast Drinks Co
(Saturday and Sunday)
Fossil Coast Drinks is an award winning premium drinks business inspired by the Jurassic Coast, fossil records and Earth’s geodiversity.
Yorkshire Fossil Hunter
https://theyorkshirefossilhunter.com/
Yorkshire Coast Fossils
https://www.yorkshirecoastfossils.co.uk/
Neojurassica
https://neojurassica.org/
Dog House Designs
https://www.facebook.com/TheDogHouseDesign/
Stone Treasures
https://www.fossils4sale.co.uk/
Rob Taylor Fossils
