The November Sanibel Shell Club Zoom meeting will be on Sunday Nov 14, 2021 at 2pm EST. This a virtual-only Zoom meeting with no in-person gathering. All members should have received a link via email to join the Zoom meeting. Please contact us at news@sanibelshellclub.com if you need the link.
Members-only are invited to attend. Not a member? Join our fun club now! Become a Member
The meeting will feature Professor Gary Schmelz, Field Research Associate with the University of Florida, giving a presentation called “Marine Life of the Bahamas”. The presentation will focus on unusual creatures of the Bahamas and their background information on the different forms including their natural habitat and feeding behavior.
All the photography was done by Dr. Schmelz during trips with Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum or the Conservancy of SW Florida.
Dr. Gary Schmelz
Professor Schmelz received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Delaware. He is the former Director of the Big Cypress Nature Center and Director of Education for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. While working there he developed environmental science classes for Collier 3rd, 4th, and 7th grade children, a national education training program for teachers, established a wild animal rehabilitation center, and supervised the Conservancy’s sea turtle nesting program. For his accomplishments in the field of environmental education, he received the Elsie M. B. Naumburg Award as the leading environmental educator in the United States in 1985. In 2007 he received the Howard Converse Award for his outstanding contributions to Florida Paleontology.
Dr. Schmelz has written dozens of natural history articles for Gulfshore Life Magazine. Currently, Dr. Schmelz is a Field Research Associate with the University of Florida where his main interests are in paleomalacology. To date, he has described thirty-five new species of fossil marine mollusks. More recently he has co-authored a booklet on Mollusca of the Florida Shoal River Formation and has just finished his latest book Fabulous Florida Fossil Shells. Dr. Schmelz is the past President of the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum and was a former professor at Florida Southwestern State College where he taught marine biology, oceanography, ecology, and biology.
Our Board Member-at-Large, Debi McBroom, will introduce Professor Schmelz at our meeting.
Hope you can join us!
Is it possible to join you on a fossil expedition?
Thanks for your good question. All of our Club field trips are offered to members-only with a limited number of spaces. We’re still working on the 2022 field trip schedule so we can’t tell you yet if a fossil dig will be included or not. Keep watching our website and monthly newsletter for announcements of upcoming field trips and how to register.