Throughout their journey, they encounter "paleonerds" like themselves, men and women dedicated to finding everything from suburban T. rexes to killer Eocene pigs to ancient fossilized forests. Much of their travels are spent in remote places few people visit, where they discover small-town museums packed with paleontological treasures, rock quarries that have yielded hundreds of fossilized bones, and the remains of ancient seashores tracked with the footprints of dinosaurs. What soon becomes evident is that fossils are everywhere; it only takes knowing what to look for to find them—even at 65 miles per hour.

About Ray:

Ray Troll earned a BA from Bethany College in 1977 and an MFA in studio arts from Washington State University in 1981. He moved to Alaska in 1983 to spend a summer helping his sister start a retail seafood store, got hooked on the area, and has remained in Alaska ever since.  Troll has created artwork for various conservation organizations including the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council.

Troll's unique blend of art and science culminated in his traveling exhibit, Dancing to the Fossil Record, which opened at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco in 1995. The huge exhibit included Troll's original drawings, gigantic fossils, fish tanks, murals, an original soundtrack, a dance floor, and an interactive computer installation. The exhibit traveled to museums and aquariums across the country and ended four years later at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, by which time it had grown to 14,000 square feet.

Meet Ray Troll!  Ray will be presenting a paleo-talk, slideshow and signing on Monday, May 5^th at Hearthside Books in the Nugget Mall at 7PM.