Boning Up on Past Is Professor’s Speciality

George Callison is a professional vertebrate paleontologist who spends his summers looking for brachiopods and trilobites. More simply, he hunts 140- million-year-old dinosaur bones.

“I grew up hunting and gathering things,� said the 48-year-old Los Alamitos man. “I think I have the genes for it since my parents were hunting and gathering people. I have an intense love for discovery.�

While Kansas, his birthplace, was fertile ground during his youth for hunting and studying an extinct group of giant lizards and primitive snakes, it wasn’t until Callison moved to California--and Cal State Long Beach, where he teaches--that he concentrated on making digs for dinosaur fossils.

Those digs are in such places as Colorado, Utah and Mexico and his 2-month-long summer dinosaur hunt camp-outs are so popular, volunteers pay for the outings, which are sponsored by the National Geographic Society and Los Angeles County Natural History Museum.

“I just get a terrific thrill at the digs, not only because of the physical effort and aesthetics of the places, but seeing bones and different species of animals no one else has ever seen before,� Callison said.

His learning credentials, which include masters’ and doctorate degrees, are from Kansas State University, University of Kansas, South Dakota School of Mining and Technology and Cal State Long Beach.

The thrill of the thousands of finds he has made--including “about 1,200 in reasonably good condition�--helps him withstand the 130-degree temperatures the dinosaur hunters often encounter.

He said Bobbi, his wife of 25 years, stays home. “Conditions are not pleasant out there,� he said.

Callison has found dinosaur fossils no bigger than a chicken, but he notes that many of the extinct species were small when full grown as opposed to the mammoths most people think of when they hear the word “dinosaur.�

A prehistoric crocodile called Fruitachampsa callisoni was named after him by paleontologist James M. Clark of UC Davis. It was built like a house cat with long legs, big eyes, and a short face and appears to have made a habit of gobbling up other animals.

“It’s truly an honor having a species named after me,� Callison said.

Callison, a popular speaker, recently taught a two-day course at UC Irvine Extension called “Science, Art and the New Age of Dinosaurs: Bringing Fossils to Life,� where he showed some of his latest discoveries.

It also included an art exhibit of dinosaurs.

“This kind of program gets young people interested and excited about science,� he said. “I like to see people get excited because there are terrific things in the world to get excited about.�

There’s an 8-foot-high, 100-foot-long solid concrete wall at Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. And Paul Apodaca is looking for someone to take it away.

It has a mural on it depicting the history of Orange County. It was painted by prominent muralist Emigdio Vasquez, with the help of about 300 community volunteers.

The mural is scheduled for demolition as part of a $13-million expansion program in progress for the museum that doesn’t include the wall.

“At this point we’re stymied about what to do,� said Apodaca, museum curator of folk art. “We hope some big corporation or school would have space for it. It should be saved.�

Apodaca said he figures it will cost $25,000 to cut the long concrete mural into sections and cart it away.

If you want the wall, Apodaca said it is free of charge.

Delivery, however, is extra.

For six years, George Adamik steadily let his waistline expand until he gained 45 pounds and weighed 270.

“I literally became a human garbage disposal,� said the 59-year-old Los Alamitos man.

Then he went on a diet and lost 62 pounds in six months, a feat that earned him member of the year honors from Weight Watchers. He was selected from among 210,000 candidates.

“Being selected . . . is just icing on the cake,� he joshed.

Acknowledgments--Clinton M. Hoose of Corona del Mar, who has seen the Orange County Fair grow from “a small fair into a major force in the fair industry,� has been appointed to an unprecedented fifth term on the Orange County Fair board of directors. The appointment by Gov. George Deukmejian is for another four-year term.