Ray Troll exhibit opens in museum collections gallery

January 24, 2020

Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902

A new exhibit at the University of Alaska Museum of the North features paintings by Ray Troll and sculptures by Gary Staab as part of the traveling exhibition, “Cruisin’ the Fossil Coastline.”

The exhibit includes fossils from the Earth science collection at the museum, full-size prehistoric animals modeled by Gary Stabb, and more than two dozen original paintings by Ray Troll.

“This eye-catching exhibit is the enjoyable and informative result of a collaboration between artists and scientists," said Patrick Druckenmiller, director and Earth science curator at the UA Museum of the North. "Ray’s iconic art and Gary’s sculptures bring to life Alaska’s amazing and often unexpected fossils.”

“Cruisin’ the Fossil Coastline” is based on the eponymous book by Troll and paleontologist Kirk Johnson and is organized by the Anchorage Museum with support from Lynden Inc.

Troll and Johnson, who serves as the director of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, logged more than 10,000 miles and traveled 250 days along western North America's coastline in search of fossils.

The exhibition at the UA museum focuses on their Alaska fossil adventures and the remarkable stories that fossils reveal:

• the history of life on Earth, punctuated by killer asteroids and mass extinctions.


• the ancient geology of prehistoric Alaska.


• the long-vanished grassland of Alaska’s mammoth steppe.


• the 13-foot-tall mega-bear of the Pleistocene.


• the mystery surrounding the Liscomb Bonebed, a mass “grave” of hundreds of duckbill dinosaurs.

Several artworks will also be displayed at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center.

The museum is offering a special $4 rate for visitors to this exhibit alone.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Roger Topp, 907-474-6985, rmtopp@alaska.edu. Pat Druckenmiller, 907-474-6954 or via email at psdruckenmiller@alaska.edu.

ON THE WEB: http://www.uaf.edu/museum/exhibits/