PaleoFest 2026
From The Observatory
Dates
March 6–8, 2026
Location
Rockford, IL
Area
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Over the last 27 years, PaleoFest has become the premier paleontology event that brings the general public together to mingle and listen to talks by world-renowned paleontologists from across the globe!
PaleoFest is a weekend-long celebration of paleontology at the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Illinois. The event features educational programs, workshops, and lectures from paleontologists. For one weekend, Burpee becomes the hot spot for all things paleontology from debates to activities to hanging out with other like minded paleo friends!Agenda
Friday, March 6
- 5:30 PM – Doors open; reception with appetizers and cash drinks
- 6:00 PM – Check-in for Nano vs. T. rex Dino Craft Lab (child drop-off)
- 6:15 PM – Dr. James Napoli: "Nanotyrannus lethaeus: how new evidence revealed Rockford's own tyrannosaur species was hiding in plain sight"
- 7:30 PM – Museum closes
Saturday, March 7 – Lectures (Riverview Room)
- 8:30 AM – Doors open for research ticket holders
- 9:15 AM – Opening remarks
- 9:30 AM – Willie Friemuth (NC State): "Utah's Sister Sickle-Makers"
- 10:00 AM – Mary Droser: "Animals, Sediments, Slime, Muck and Goo"
- 10:30 AM – Break
- 11:00 AM – John Moretti (UT): "Exploration of water caves in central Texas"
- 11:30 AM – Madelyn Turala (ETSU): "Estimating body size of extinct crocodilians"
- 12:00 PM – Lunch
- 1:30 PM – Mitchell Riegler (UF): "Hidden Anatomy of Worm Lizards"
- 2:00 PM – Courtney Sprain (UF): "T-Rex and the Crater of Doom?"
- 2:30 PM – Break
- 3:00 PM – Fatima Husain (MIT): "Eukaryotic life from a Snowball Earth analogue"
- 4:00 PM – Dr. Thomas Dudgeon (ROM): TBD
Saturday, March 7 – Activities & Evening
- 10:00 AM – Doors open; Paleo Marketplace shopping
- 10:30–11:30 AM – Workshops: Survivors of the Cretaceous (Live Animals!) / Hell Creek Rock Stars
- 1:00 PM – Burpee Rocks Reading
- 1:30–3:30 PM – Workshops repeat
- 3:30–4:30 PM – Nano vs. T. rex Dino Craft Lab
- 5:00 PM – PaleoReception (cash bar, networking, music)
- 5:30 PM – VIP dinner seating
- 6:00 PM – All dinner seating
- 7:30 PM – Keynote: Dr. Jingmai O'Connor — "Archaeopteryx: Food for flight"
- 8:30 PM – Live auction
Sunday, March 8 – Lectures
- 9:00 AM – Doors open
- 9:45 AM – Opening remarks
- 10:00 AM – Dr. Kimi Chappelle (Stony Brook): "Life at the dawn of dinosaur reproduction"
- 10:30 AM – Lauren Wilson (Princeton): "The evolution of palatal development in the common ancestor of living birds"
- 11:00 AM – Break
- 11:30 AM – Lee Hall (Museum of the Rockies): "A Science Passed by Hand"
Sunday, March 8 – Activities
- 10:00 AM – Doors open; Marketplace
- 10:30 AM–4:30 PM – Workshops (rotating)
- 5:00 PM – Museum closes
Participants
Burpee Museum of Natural History
Organizer, Host | Homepage
It is the mission of the Burpee Museum of Natural History to inspire all people to engage in a lifetime of discovery and learning about the natural world through preservation and interpretation.
