Using chunks of red clay and a plastic toy, Daniel Curtis demonstrated how a dinosaur would be fossilized over time to children during a fossil dig presentation Wednesday.

Curtis, a senior geology major, and Kara Baker, a senior science major, hosted the presentation at the Charleston Carnegie Public Library to about 50 children ranging from ages 3 to 12.

Diane Burns, a professor of geology and geography, said it is important for everyone to learn about the earth because everyone lives on it.

“There’s only one planet that we inhabit,” she said. “We have global warming and petroleum issues and all these things but if you start with education awareness, science awareness, earth awareness when they’re younger, they’re much (more likely) to think about it when they get to an older age. This is an age where the dinosaurs and stuff really excite them, that’s how you grab them into it.”

Curtis said the main reason he was interested in geology as a child was “Jurassic Park.”

“(The movie) came out in ’93 when I was 8 or 9 and I was reading the book,” he said. “It’s pretty intense, and I probably read it four times before the movie came out, so I was a little obsessed.”

Curtis said because he got interested in geology at a young age, he wanted to present his knowledge of fossils to others.

“I don’t particularly enjoy doing presentations very much, but I know how excited kids are about this stuff, so you can actually teach them and show them things about it,” he said. “It might help keep their interest opposed to just the fad thing when you’re that age.”

Like Curtis, Baker said she started collecting rocks when she was a child.

“I was always outdoors and really liked nature,” she said. “ I was more interested in the dead things or the inorganic things than the living things.”

Baker said since she was a child, she has built up a collection of different minerals and fossils.

“I actually have three dozen samples on display throughout my house,” she said.

Curtis said he cannot put a number on how many fossils he has.

“On display, I only have three or four but in total, I have no idea. I have drawers full with stuff,” he said. “You just have to look for certain shapes that aren’t natural – the long stems, the round beadlike shapes that are the crinoids.”

Curtis said many of the fossils he finds in this area are actually ocean creatures.

“Everything around here was an ocean 300 million years ago so we have tons of these ocean creatures,” he said.

Baker said most of her fossils are also of aquatic animals.

“It’s sort of confusing to kids,” she said, laughing because she can go into her backyard to find fossils of ocean creatures.

After the presentation, Curtis rolled out a life-size, 18-foot drawing of an orthoceras for the children to color.

“That’s the biggest they’ve found. The average on those was really like 6 inches, but some of them could get that big,” he said. “For the ammonites, the biggest shell they’ve found of those was about 6 feet across.”

The most exciting part for the children was being able to discover and dig up their own ammonite, orthocera and gastropod fossils.

“Oh yeah, kids love digging in dirt,” Curtis said, laughing. “I love digging in dirt.”

Amanda Wilkinson can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].