Dr. Martin Shugar and Andy Secher are both Field Associates in the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History.
Andy Secher likes to joke that he has the largest trilobite collection on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. That may not sound very impressive until you consider that the American Museum of Natural History happens to reside less than half a mile from Secher's penthouse apartment. It is within that abode, mixed amid the dozens of platinum album awards and autographed guitars that characterize his "day job" within the music industry that Secher has comprised one of the most impressive and extensive trilobite collections in the world-- with over 4,000 specimens (ranging from Lower Cambrian to Upper Permian) prominently displayed on glass shelving units of various sizes, shapes and strengths. Trilobites have been Secher's passion throughout his life. He can recall being given an Elrathia kingi specimen from Utah - the most common trilobite on earth - when he was six years old... and he insists he still has it somewhere amid his dizzying displays. Secher has expanded his fascination with trilobites by traveling around the world to meet with fellow collectors, visit museum exhibits and take part in a variety of exotic digs. He has also written extensively about his trilobite-related travels.
Martin A. Shugar, M.D., F.A.C.S., an amateur paleontologist, was director of the Florida Institute of Paleontology at the Graves Museum of Archaeology and Natural History. He was the organizing chairman of the Florida Symposium on Dinosaur - Bird Evolution held in 2000 to discuss the origin of birds, feathers and flight and to allow scientists to examine a remarkable new specimen from Montana, Bambiraptor feinbergi, for the first time. Dr. Shugar was instrumental in securing the holotype and adult bones of Bambiraptor for science. These fossils, along with the Shugar - Smith Florida Fossil Shell Collection (comprising some 200,000 specimens) now reside in the American Museum of Natural History. Dr. Shugar began collecting trilobites at age 14 and now has an extensive collection featuring U.K. specimens, including one of the largest collections of Dudley (Silurian) trilobites outside of Europe.
The Website Editors wish to thank James Cook, for his invaluable assistance in the identification of specimens.