Robert H. Solem, amateur paleontologist and resident of Beloit knew Beane well. Solem purchased the fossils from Beane with the intent of letting Beane enjoy his fossils throughout his lifetime. With Solem's generosity, upon Beane's death, geology professors Hank Woodard and Richard Stenstrom moved the fossils from the Beane homestead to Beloit College where they are on display. Present Activities Beloit College has been seeking funding to bring in a specialist in crinoidology to assess and study the collection. The fossils are available for student projects and studies, including The paleoecology of an assemblage of fossils from the B.H. Beane collection by Karla Parsons.
Equipment is available to prepare specimens using microabrasive techniques.
Click here to see a fossil crinoid which has been entirely freed from the surrounding matrix by the technique ilustrated above. The Crinoid Education Project has the potential to put an extremely rich datasource into the hands of students that educators can use to facilitate the 3 P's in their classes. In addition to images of the crinoids, students will have quicktime movies that illustrate the history of how the fossils were discovered and the past and present work of scientists to remove the surrounding matrix and reveal the fossils. Modules are also planned to allow students to simulate fossilization, construct phylogenies, and explore biogeographies. This project is a collaborative effort between scientists and science educators.