Friday, Sep 12, 2008
Dr. William B. Gallagher, visiting assistant professor in the Department of Geological, Environmental, and Marine Sciences (GEMS), will be featured on The History Channel’s program Terrain on Monday, September 22, at 9 p.m.
The nationally broadcasted episode, according to the network’s Web site, History.com, will examine the geological influences that shaped what is today perhaps the most important city in the world, New York.
“What if we could strip away the buildings and recreate the Manhattan of 1609?” History.com asks. “Take a journey back in time and discover the forces that shaped the landscape from a sweltering tropical region to fertile Indian hunting grounds, to today’s modern metropolis. Dive beneath New York Harbor, climb to the tops of the highest skyscrapers and delve 600 feet down to the deepest tunnels to see how New York became New York and what the future may hold for the city.”
Gallagher, who until his retirement in 2008 was the assistant curator of Natural History, Collections and Exhibits of the Natural History Bureau for the New Jersey State Museum, will discuss New Jersey in the age of dinosaurs early in the program, and later, the effects of the Ice Age on the land that would become New York.
The author of the popular book When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey, Gallagher is also scheduled to present a talk to the Haddonfield (N.J.) Historical Society on Wednesday, September 24, entitled “The Historical Importance of Hadrosaurus foulkii, the Dinosaur from Haddonfield,” in an event celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the creature’s discovery.