New Displays Around the Department       Over the past year there have been some exciting additions to the department's collections. Already on display in the museum is a 16' x 4' mural by local artist, Rachel Amann, depicting life in the Devonian (i.e., 'life at Colgate' ~360-410 million years ago when the sediments that compose the local bedrock were deposited). The mural presents both a time and geographic sequence, beginning with Lower into Middle Devonian deep sea and reef communities and grading laterally into Upper Devonian terrestrial and fluvial settings. In addition to these living communities, the lower portion of the mural slices down into the sedimentary stratigraphy below, in order to show how these organisms and depositional conditions might look when preserved in the rock record. Future plans for the mural exhibit include devoting a display case below the mural to rock and fossil specimens that correlate with features seen in the mural, and preparing information pamphlets (that will be available in the museum) on where similar fossils cans be found in central New York. For a look at our beautiful new Devonian mural, please click here       Other recent acquisitions that have yet to be displayed include various items from the estate of G. Arthur Cooper, who is the only person ever to receive both a BS ('24) and a MS ('26) in geology from Colgate University. After completing a doctoral degree at Yale, Cooper spent his career at the Smithsonian Institute, during which time he was considered to be a leading expert in brachiopods, publishing more on the subject that any other person in the 20th century. In recognition of his achievements, Cooper received many awards including the GSA's Penrose Medal and an Honorary Fellowship in the Paleontological Society. After his death in October of 2000, his family generously donated a collection of his publications, academic hoods, diplomas and awards to the geology department. Plans are currectly underway to set up a new display case outside of the G. Arthur Cooper classroom (the 'Paleo Lab' - 403 Lathrop) that will include many of these items along with biographical information and anecdotes.       Lastly, a unique addition to our collections is a tuft of hair from the Zarkov woolly mammoth that was graciously donated by Dr. Howard Amann of Hamilton, NY. You may have seen the excavation of this mammoth chronicled on a Discovery Channel special that aired in 2000. The Zharkov mammoth was discovered in 1997 in Siberia by a nomadic reindeer herder. It is believed to be 23,000 years old. We are hoping to develop a small display on mammoths for the museum that would include not only the Zharkov hair, but also the mammoth tusk from the back wall of 305 Lathrop, a few mammoth teeth, an adult thighbone, and the skull of a baby mammoth. This skull is actually special in its own right because it comes from a site in which man-made weapons were found interspersed with the bones, an extremely rare occurrence. Di Keller