Theodore J. Fremd Paleontologist John Day Fossil Beds National Monument 32651 Highway 19 Kimberly, OR 97848

Each science advisor performs specific roles and functions to support the goal of bringing science and scholarship to PWR parks, the Regional Directorate, and to the National Park Service. The information below is intended to highlight areas of expertise, current activities, and capacities of individual PWR Science Advisors.

Disciplinary and/or geographic expertise:

Vertebrate paleontology, biostratigraphy, taphonomy, paleoecology, curation of natural history specimens, and management of paleontological specimens. Science liaison capacity:

Faculty member, University of Oregon, Department of Geological Sciences, Eugene, OR

Paleontological research coordinator; interagency agreements with U. S. Bureau of Land Management (four districts), U. S. Forest Service (three National Forests in Oregon and Washington), U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon State Parks, The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, The Natural Conservancy, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, varied private lands with significant fossil resources.

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (Government Laiason Committee), AAAS, Geological Society of America, Paleontological Society, etc.

NPS Natural History Collections ad hoc committee; Chair, NPS Collections Significance Group (Paleontology), NPS Museum Management Program Council, PWR GIS Committee

World Heritage Assessment, Ipolytarnoc National Park, Hungary

Science needs identification and assessment:

Paleontological resource conservation on public lands Curation, laboratory, and fieldwork methods with fossilized biotas Phylogenetic systematics and evolutionary paleoecology Synthetic focus: Applicability of “deep time” perspectives to modern ecological syntheses; defragmentation of spatially broad (basin-scale) Tertiary paleontological deposits and their entombed biotas Strategic resource management approaches:

Relevance of evolutionary paleoecology in conservation of recent biotas; preservation and curation of paleontological resources. Recent activities include: Paleontological Survey, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska; team member of Petrified Forest Paleontological Resource Planning, etc.

Growing up surrounded by the fossil-rich waterways of North Florida, Matt Smith developed an early interest in the ancient and modern biota of his home state. In 1992 he decided to pursue a Zoology degree at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Other than a brief foray into the world of entomology with the Agriculture Department, he restricted his movements as much as possible to the halls of the Florida Museum of Natural History and the buildings immediately adjacent. While lurking about he discovered that the arcane field of fossil preparation was the only sensible avenue of study within the greater world of Paleontology, being that the preparation laboratory was where they kept the coffee maker. After earning his Bachelors, he headed to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC to build supportive fiberglass and plaster jackets for some of their oversized fossils due to be shipped to their new facility Maryland. In secret he kept close watch on the masterful preparators employed there, and dared to dream that he could one day apply some of their techniques to fossils outside of a crowded, metropolitan setting. He came close to realizing this idle reverie when he traveled to La Paz, Bolivia to assist the staff at el Museo Nacional del Historie Natural in mounting the skeleton of Eurygenium pacenium, a rather unusual Notohippid. While there, he was also lucky enough to go and work for a few short days at the beautiful field locality of Salla, famous for some of the earliest primate fossils in South America. Returning from Bolivia in May of 1998, and at a loss for what to do next, he applied for seasonal employment at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument as a laboratory technician. One thing led to another, and four years latter he was offered a permanent position as a full time preparator. In this way his musings while in Washington came full circle, and he now works and resides in the wilds of the beautiful John Day River Basin.