Upcoming Shows and Events:

February 18: 22nd Annual Mineral, Jewelry, & Fossil Show
Southern Maryland Rock and Mineral Club
Sat 10am-5pm
Admission: $3 (free for children 6 and under)
Demonstrations, exhibits, door prizes, kids crafts, and over 80 tables of minerals, jewelry, fossils, equipment and more.
The Show Place Arena
14900 Pennsylvania Ave., Upper Marlboro, Md. (Intersection of Water St. and Pennsylvania Ave. (Rte. 4)
Information: http://www.smrmc.org/2012-rock-show.html

March 3-4: 49th Annual Show
Delaware Mineralogical Society
Sat 10-6, Sun 11-5
Delaware Technical & Community College
I-95, Exit 5B, Churchmans Road (DE 58), Newark (Stanton) DE
Information: http://www.delminsociety.net

March 17-18: 48th Annual GLMSMC Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show
Our Show!!!
Montgomery County Fairgrounds
16 Chestnut Street
Gaithersburg, MD
Saturday 10-6, Sunday 11-5
Admission: $6 ages 12 and older (children 11 and under, and scouts in uniform get in for free)
World-wide treasures from over 20 dealers * More than 40 exhibits * Door prizes * Demonstrations * Free workshop * Free specimens for the kids * Free kids' Mini Mine * Food for sale * Fluorescent minerals * Raffle * Information Center * Plenty of free parking
See http://www.glmsmc.com/show.shtml for directions, coupon, and more information.

Smithsonian Institution Exhibits in the National Museum of Natural History Events
1. David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, permanent exhibition hall, 15,000-square-foot entered from the Sant Ocean Hall. Free admission, no tickets required.
See http://humanorigins.si.edu/exhibit
2. “Dinosaurs in Our Backyard”, new permanent exhibit on the 1st floor, in the Fossil Hall. The exhibit explores the scientific study of dinosaur biology, ecology, and evolution of dinosaurs which lived from 225 to 60 million years ago. Important contributions by amateur collectors are recognized.

Dinosaur Park
13200 Block of Mid-Atlantic Boulevard, Laurel, MD 20708, 301-627-7755.
Dinosaur Park interpretive area is open from dawn to dusk 7 days a week. The public is invited to participate in hands-on programs in the fossil area on the first and third Saturdays of every month from 12 noon until 4 pm.
Featuring a rare deposit of fossils from the Early Cretaceous period about 110 million years ago, the Park is part of a geologic formation called the Muirkirk Deposit that consists of sediments and clays that occur south of Washington D.C. to north of Baltimore. Here, paleontologists have unearthed fossilized bones of several kinds of dinosaurs, early mammals, and fossils of trees and early flowering plants.

Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature
The University of Richmond has reinstalled the permanent exhibition of Fluorescent Minerals from the Permanent Collection. It contains more than 300 specimens and more than 40 different mineral species from North America and beyond. Highlights of the installation include numerous minerals from New Jersey, yellow-green hyalite opal slabs from North Carolina, and deep red rubies from India. See http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=43935