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‘Encountering Our Prehistoric Past’ set for Jan. 20 (Jan. 10, 2008) – The Betty Strong Encounter Center will take visitors on a journey to the region’s prehistoric past at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20, when four amateur “dinosaur hunters” will present a program about their adventures and findings, one of which appears in the December 2007 edition of National Geographic magazine. The event will be presented in the Stanley Evans Auditorium. It will include a Power Point presentation, discussion and a display of prehistoric artifacts discovered by the team. Admission will be free. Visitors will get a close-up look at dinosaur and mammal fossils discovered in the region; Loess Hills fossils; and mammoth teeth, one from the Correctionville, Iowa, area and one from northeast Nebraska. The teeth are about 100,000 years old. 
“We enjoy sharing our findings and discussing our passion for paleontology,” says Dr. Patrick Saulsbury, a veterinarian and one of the four “dinosaur hunters,” all from Sioux City. The “dinosaur hunters” also include Dr. Steve Saulsbury, a radiologist; attorney Brian Buckmeier; and artist Darren Maurer. All will participate in the program. Their dinosaur-hunting passion led to the 2003 discovery of a Dracorex skull in the Hell Creek formation in northwest South Dakota. The creature lived 67 to 65 million years ago. Author J.K. Rowling, of “Harry Potter” fame, inspired the naming of the dinosaur Dracorex hogwartsia, which translates as “Dragon King of Hogwarts.” Consulting paleontologists determined that the skull was that of a new genus or subfamily of Pachycephalosaurus. It now is on exhibition at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Dracorex hogwartsia was photographed for National Geographic’s December 2007 cover story, “Extreme Dinosaurs.” The picture shows a skull “bristling with spikes and pointed knobs.” The Betty Strong Encounter Center is a private, non-profit cultural institution located on the Missouri Riverfront, exit 149 off I-29. Admission, all programs, exhibits and activities are free and open to all people. For more information, visit www.siouxcitylcic.com.
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