Seattle – Ammonites, trilobites, dinosaurs, oh my! Fossils are all around us. That's the message Paleontologist Kirk Johnson and artist Ray Troll share in this upcoming exhibit Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway, opening at Seattle's Burke Museum on Dec. 19, 2009. Fossils have long been a subject of fascination and are used by paleontologists to help answer questions about early life on Earth. But how much can the fossil record tell us about evolution, extinction, and geologic time?

The Burke Museum is partnering with celebrated artist Ray Troll and Seattle-born paleontologist Kirk Johnson to present this new exhibit exploring the abundance of fossils in our midst and how and why fossils shed light on Earth's past. Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway will travel nationally after closing in Seattle in late May 2010.

Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway features a dozen large-scale paintings of Troll's whimsical artwork, all of which were created for a book of the same title, published by Troll and Johnson in 2007. The book records the "epoch tale" of the duo's 5,000-mile road trip through the American West as they sought to explore the fossil record. The museum exhibit combines visuals and stories from the book with real fossil specimens from the Burke's own paleontology collection. Also on view will be a video of a more recent "fossil roadtrip" with Troll and Johnson at the wheel.

Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway was organized by the Burke Museum in collaboration with Ray Troll and Kirk Johnson, authors of the book Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Paleo Road Trip (Fulcrum Books 2007). Major sponsorship for the exhibition has been provided by Microsoft Corporation, Pendleton and Elisabeth Carey Miller Charitable Foundation, and Wells Fargo. Additional support has been provided by Edie Adams, D.V. & Ida McEachern Charitable Trust, and The Zeidner Family Charitable Fund.