This new species of grasshopper that had been fossilized an estimated 20 million years ago was discovered by paleontologist Sam Heads . (Photo courtesy of University of Illinois Extension)

The Illinois Grand Prairie Master Naturalists, serving Livingston, McLean and Woodford counties, invite the public from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 8 for a Day of Discovery at the Illinois Natural History Survey in Champaign.

The keynote speaker is Sam Heads, a paleontologist and entomologist who works with insects locked in amber. Heads made international news in 2014 when he discovered a new species of grasshopper that had been fossilized an estimated 20 million years ago.

The specimen was found in amber collected in the Dominican Republic in 1959 by Dr. Milton Sanderson. Work on that collection was abandoned in 1975 after Sanderson’s retirement and the location of the amber was unknown to researchers until Heads accidentally discovered the stones stored in a bucket under a sink.

Heads’ renewed efforts to polish and catalog the amber inclusions of the Neogene geological period led to the discovery of electrotettix attenboroughi, a pygmy locust that inhabited the Dominican Republic 18-20 million years ago. The discovery caught the attention of The Daily Telegraph, The Washington Post, and its namesake, Sir David Attenborough, who went on to narrate a brief video on the collection.

The $25 registration fee includes Heads’ morning keynote, lunch, visits to Heads’ lab and the INHS herbarium as well as a presentation by a bat researcher. Register by March 31 at http://go.illinois.edu/DiscoverINHS.

For more information, contact Reid Young, Extension program coordinator for Master Naturalists and Local Foods and Small Farms at (309) 663-8306, or by email at ryoun@illinois.edu.

— Famous paleontologist to speak at Illinois Natural History Survey   —