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Arboretum to host noted geologist Robert Titus Saturday

By Jim Planck

TANNERSVILLE — The Mountain Top Arboretum will host noted regional geologist and Hartwick College Professor Robert Titus on Saturday, June 30, at 11 a.m. for a presentation on the famed Gilboa tree fossils.

Found during the mid-19th century, the fossilized stumps of these early fern-like trees caused a stir in the scientific world and remain scientifically important to the international community to this day, and Titus will explain how and why.

Nor does their story stop there. Only a few years ago the branching top, or crown, of a tree was located in Gilboa by paleontologists from the New York State Museum, where some of the stumps have been on periodic exhibit ever since their discovery almost 150 years ago.

Titus, whose specialty is paleontology, is often referred to as “the Catskill geologist” and with good reason.

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