This event is organized by University of Washington Press.
Spirit Whales & Sloth Tales book launch
Date & Time
Wednesday, November 8
7–8:30 p.m.
This event is in the past.
Tickets
FREE and open to all;
Registration is required.
THIS EVENT IS
SOLD OUT
Due to popular demand, we are currently not taking any more reservations for this event. There will be a standby line starting at 6:45 p.m. the day of the event.
Join us to celebrate Spirit Whales & Sloth Tales: Fossils of Washington State, by Elizabeth A. Nesbitt, Burke curator emerita of invertebrate and micropaleontology, and David B. Williams, Seattle-based author, naturalist, and historian.
From primitive horses on the Columbia Plateau to giant bird tracks near Bellingham and curious bear-like beasts on the Olympic Peninsula, fossils across Washington state are filled with clues of past life on Earth. With abundant and well-exposed rock layers, the state has both old and “young” fossils, from Ice Age mammals dating only 12,000 years old back to marine invertebrates more than 500 million years old.
In Spirit Whales and Sloth Tales, renowned paleontologist Elizabeth A. Nesbitt teams up with popular science writer David B. Williams to offer a fascinating, richly illustrated tour through more than a half billion years of natural history. The spectacular paleontology of Washington is brought to life with details of the fossils' discovery and extraction, their place in geological time, and the insights they provide into contemporary issues like climate change and species extinction.
Spirit Whales & Sloth Tales is published by the University of Washington Press in partnership with the Burke Museum.
Authors will be on hand to sign books, available for purchase at the Burke store.
About the Authors
Elizabeth A. Nesbitt is curator emerita of invertebrate and micropaleontology at the Burke Museum and associate professor of earth science at the University of Washington. Her distinguished scientific contributions to the paleontology of the Pacific Northwest have earned many awards and honors, including having a whale named for her, the Maiabalaena nesbittae.
David B. Williams is a naturalist, author, and educator. His many books include the award-winning Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound and Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography. He publishes a free weekly newsletter, Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind.
