Image: Paula Spicer donated her father’s fossil collection to UGA’s Geology Department, and we are thrilled. Her father, Jordan B. Johnson, Jr., worked for 43 years for Georgia Power and picked up fossil collecting as a hobby in the late 1950s. Paula has fond memories of her dad taking her to many fossil sites in Georgia, where she collected Cretaceous ammonites and oysters from the Pataula Creek area. Additionally, in the 1960s, her dad bought fossils from Mr. Fawsett’s fossil shop in Hurricane, Utah, which were also donated. These fossils include a large Cambrian trilobite (Cambropallas) and Cretaceous knobby ammonites (Mamites) from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Paula’s mom and dad did decades of science outreach with these fossils for many Georgia elementary and middle schools, including those that Paula’s daughter attended. In the picture, Paula is holding a Cretaceous oyster from Georgia which she helped collect as a child and a large trilobite from Morocco. We are very honored to have received these fossils and many others, which will be used in teaching and museum displays. Paula_Spicer
