Sheridan College to Host Lecture on How a Dolphin Skeleton Came to Wyoming

Sheridan College will host Sheila Flynn on Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. in Room 153 of the Whitney Academic Building. In her lecture titled “How the Skeleton of a Dolphin, Named Val, Came to Wyoming from California”, Flynn will share the story of Val, a dolphin skeleton discovered in 2006 and now housed at the University of Wyoming.

Flynn’s husband, Michael, a geology and paleontology instructor at Sheridan College at the time, found the skull of the dolphin on a field trip to San Clemente, CA in 2006. With assistance from other members of the field study, under the authority of a marine mammal collection permit, Mrs. Flynn discovered the rest of the skeleton and was determined to bring it back to Sheridan College for rearticulation. She spent three years researching and rearticulating the skeleton, and in 2009 it was put on display in the college’s Museum of Discovery along with a mural painted by local artist Ellen Dudley.

When the museum was remodeled in 2024, “Val” was moved to the Geology Museum at the University of Wyoming, which was interested in using the skeleton to compare the coevolution of ancient marine reptiles and marine mammals.

Flynn accompanied her husband on paleontology field studies in San Clemente from 2004 to 2005 and became interested in evidence of dental disease in fossils that they discovered. In 2013, Flynn co-authored an article documenting that the dental calculus found on the tooth root of a Miocene fossil Odontoceti (Toothed Whale) was evidence of periodontal disease. She worked as a dental hygienist for 24 years in Sheridan before retiring.

Sheridan College Associate Professor of Biology Scott Newbold looks forward to sharing Flynn’s adventures with the community. “It’s such an interesting story; to hear how she became interested in the ways Mr. Flynn’s work connected with her own,” he said. “Then to see how she brought the story to the community and contributed her own research. I think everyone will enjoy this lecture.”

The lecture is free and open to the public. It is part of Sheridan College’s ongoing series of public lectures designed to connect the community with experts and researchers exploring topics of scientific, cultural and public interest. The Zoom link will be available at
www.sheridan.edu/lecture
at the time of lecture.