The official word from Potash Corp -- "There will not be a Spring 2012 Collecting Season due to safety concerns related to heavy equipment in the mine".

From Public Affairs - PotashCorp: "Due to safety concerns related to heavy equipment in the Mine area as a result of us receiving our mine continuation permit, we have suspended fossil hunting. As we approach the Spring season, we will re-evaluate."

I had been advised that there were problems with the email address provided for ordering NMMNH&S Bulletin 52; I have been given an alternate address for these inquires: Beth Ricker, Store Manager for the NMMNH&S, at bricker@naturalhistoryfoundation.org.

Although started with Keith Wright as an elasmo.com fauna project, the Hosta Tongue selachian assemblage proved rather unique and the scope expanded to a co venture with the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science; the monograph was recently released.

Elasmo.com genus pages will soon be fully updated to bring the website content inline with the observations contained in the bulletin. At that point a Hosta Tongue fauna page will be added to the website.

A second recent paper, Bourdon & Everhart 2011 on Cretoxyrhina mantelli may be of interest to some readers.

After a few seasons without fossil collecting at Aurora, the 18th Aurora Fossil Festival will be a welcome opportunity to meet with old friends and catch up on the fossil scene in other parts. Opening ceremonies will be in the tent across from the museum on Friday, May 27 at 6pm. A great "beach music" band will play until 10pm. Fossil Masters this year are Thomas and Joan Walker. Longtime fossil collectors may remember them as the driving force behind organizing the first festival in 1994 as well as being Festival Chairmen for the first four years. This honor to them is long overdue.

Saturday's activities start at 9am with the parade coming into town at 11am. We have several fossil dealers booked who are first time Auroral vendors. In addition, nearly all our old favorites will be returning. Lecturers at the museum are Mark Renz, speaking on his Florida adventures (10am and 1:30pm) and George Powell discussing the skills and trials encountered in prepping a large Yorktown whale (12pm). The helicopter is back again with trips across the river and over the mine. PotashCorp is also providing free tours of their mine until 4pm. New this year in the Public Education tent, the Great Dane Rescue League will be showing some of their huge (and very friendly) rescued dogs. Also on hand will be the Calvert Marine Museum Fossil Club, Schiele Museum gem mining sluice, Civil War and Native American artifacts from NC, a modern animal skull collection and other interesting displays. The Community Center will house other fossil club displays. Available to help identify fossils will be representatives of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Smithsonian Institution and Virginia Museum of Natural History. The museum's annual fossil auction will begin at 3pm at the Learning Center pavilion--stop in early to preview and pick up your number. There will be a wide variety of live music all day followed by a street dance from 7:30-10:30pm. Expect lots of good food-I hear we'll have shrimp burgers this year! If you're still in town on Sunday morning, there will be a non-denominational worship service followed by singing until 3pm.

There are already many new piles of reject placed around town and at the museum. A 20 minute browse today showed it was rich in small teeth, dolphin vertebrae, barracuda teeth, pufferfish mouthplates and few nice, large mako teeth. It's been a long while since reject has looked this good-bring buckets to take some back home with you after the festival.

Hope to see all of you there!

From Public Affairs - PotashCorp: "Because the safety concerns with the heavy equipment still remain, we will not be hosting a Spring 2011 collecting season. As we approach the Fall season, we will re-evaluate."