What, if anything, does paleontology have to do with racial injustice? The 1st identified vertebrate fossils from North America, mammoth teeth - were identified as elephant teeth by enslaved Africans on the Stono Plantation in 1725. These fossils led to hypothesis of extinction.

Many other fossils were excavated by unnamed people, likely slaves, on plantations - like the original fossil of the archaeocete whale Dorudon serratus, found on the Mazyck Plantation in the 1840s.

Many early 19th century naturalists in Charleston were either slaveowners or benefited from vast fortunes of their slaveowning families - a privilege that afforded them the time to devote to scientific research, considered a leisurely activity for 'gentlemen' at the time.

Francis Holmes, the curator of the short-lived College of Charleston Museum*, was a slaveowner and amassed a large collection of fossils from various lowcountry plantations. Collection subsequently absorbed by Charleston Museum.

*This is not us: our museum is only about ten years old. The original museum ceased operations in the late 19th century.

There is a lot to think about and process right now, and you'll no doubt hear that racial injustice is pervasive: indeed, even something as seemingly innocuous as the study of fossils is historically bathed in it.